The Hope You've Been Waiting For
by elljayde
Summary: It was quiet, probably the thing she hated most about the apocalypse so far, if she ever ran into another person they'd probably say the cannibalistic dead people were the worst thing but for Allison Grimes that was not something she had to worry about.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer – I do not own TWD or any of its characters. The only creation so far is Allison Grimes. Enjoy let me know what you think

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She would have to leave soon, hardly any food remained. The National Guard had taken the majority of supplies from the canteen after gunning down everyone in their sights leaving only the meagre offerings of the vending machines. It was quiet, probably the thing she hated most about the apocalypse so far, if she ever ran into another person they'd probably say the cannibalistic dead people were the worst thing but for Allison Grimes that was not something she had to worry about.

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Allison POV

I've always been a strange child, I didn't have many friends growing up, preferring to spend my time surrounded by books and researching anything that came to mind. My parents did the best they could with a 'gifted' child, however, being the result of a mistaken menopause and planning for retirement rather than another child made it difficult for them to keep up with their precocious daughter. My brother Rick is my hero, our sixteen year age gap made him more of a parent than a brother to me, well until Lori came along. When our parents died when I was eight it was Lori that convinced Rick to send me away, I heard them arguing about it when they thought I'd cried myself to sleep. A heavily pregnant Lori had convinced Rick to use our parents' life insurance to send me to a boarding school for gifted youngsters. To be honest it was something my parents were thinking about but with the imminent arrival of the newest Grimes I had convinced my parents to let me go through a normal schooling system. When I left King County to go half way across the country as a heartbroken ten year old I hated Lori, losing my parents and being torn away from my brother nearly destroyed me. But as a nineteen year old completing my PhD in molecular and cell biology, genetics and virology and about to embark on a career in epidemiology Lori was the first person I thanked in my valedictorian speech.

My world ended two months before everyone else's. I'd just walked out of an interview with Candace Jenner when I received a call from Lori telling me that Rick was shot and in surgery. I packed immediately and headed back to King County to keep a bedside vigil for my beloved brother. Even getting the call offering me the job of my dreams couldn't persuade me to leave my brother. I spent the next two months going between Rick and Lori's house and the hospital, helping Lori look after Carl and even taking a part-time job as a receptionist to help support my brother's family with the quickly accumulating hospital bills when rumours of a virus started spreading. It started in the major cities; videos of weird behaviour, riots and people being shot in the street looking more like something off a movie than real life.

"Lori!" Shane screamed coming crashing through the front door out of breath

"Shane? What's wrong" Lori replied worriedly

"Pack only what is essential, this virus, it's not what you think… its' bad Lori we don't have time, we have to go now." Shane replied in a hurry already making a start on loading cardboard boxes from the kitchen cupboards.

"I'm not going anywhere without my husband" Lori replied stubbornly

"We'll go get him Lori" I replied entering the kitchen

Shane looked between the two of us exasperated but resigned and dragged me out the front door, "Keep packing Lori" he yelled over his shoulder as we ran out the front door. Thankfully Carl was home, the schools having been closed two days ago due to the ongoing crisis.

"What have you heard Shane?" I asked as we headed to the hospital in his Jeep.

"I've seen it... up close. Barely got away. Mr Turner started eating Mrs Coates not five metres in front of me, I swear it was like something from a zombie movie." Shane replied shakily. I'd known Shane my whole life I'd never seen him so rattled.

Thankfully the hospital was only twenty minutes from the house. Today we made the journey in ten. Shane handed me his spare pistol out of the glove compartment and we ran inside the hospital. It was chaos. People were screaming and running, down one corridor I saw the National Guard line people against the wall and then gun them down. I looked around and Shane was gone, already heading to Rick's room without me. I was about to follow when someone grabbed me, well, when I say someone that's not accurate. The 'thing' smelt like death had an arm missing and large bites in its neck. Its nails ripped into my arm as it tried to bring me closer to its snapping teeth, leaving long rivers of blood flowing down my arm. Suddenly Shane was back and the creature was dead.

"Oh God! Ally-Cat I'm so sorry" Shane said with tears in his eyes. "Rick… he's gone" Using Rick's nickname for me stabbed at my heart, I'd normally never allow Shane to call me that.

"I think I am too Shane." I replied sadly. I figured from the way the National guard were reacting to what looked like innocent people that this virus was spread by bites and scratches. I showed Shane my arm making him gasp. "Just leave me here. I'm going to go sit with my brother and say goodbye." I continued with the tears pouring down my eyes. "Promise me you'll get Lori and Carl and keep them safe, tell them I love them"

Shane hugged and kissed my cheek, "I promise to keep them safe." He then turned and ran out the hospital.

I managed to make it to Rick's room without running into anymore of those things or National Guard finding a gurney left against my brothers door, this confused me, if Rick was gone why would Shane block the door. I entered to see my brother, his chest slowly rising and falling. I'd never been so mad at Shane in that moment and he'd done a lot of crazy stuff over the years for me to get mad at, always finding ways to torture me when I came home from school for vacations, making me feel like a freak for being smarter than him. He could have found a way to get Rick out of here especially since he was now breathing on his own. I made sure to secure the door and then laid down on the bed next to my brother like I used to during thunderstorms and went to sleep.

I woke up and the room was dark meaning I must have slept for several hours. Rick didn't stir as I got up meaning he was still comatose, I checked his pulse and breathing relieved he was showing so much progress. My stomach started to rumble so I got up to find some food. After securing the door again I slowly ventured down the corridor the lack of light made the place even scarier. It didn't take me long to come across a zombie, I'd decided that was the best way to call them. I decided to just avoid the thing as they didn't seem to move very fast when I came across a group of about twenty. I resigned myself to it being over, however they just walked past me as if I wasn't there. I was stunned. How was this possible? Maybe it was my arm, I was infected already it wouldn't be long until I was one of them, however looking at my arm the scratches had nearly healed fading to just pink lines. I decided I must be dreaming but I should find food anyway and continued on my search.

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I've been on my own a month now, I don't count sleeping beauty a.k.a. my big brother Rick, I've started talking out loud to myself I think I must be crazy. Some days I think I'm dreaming, trapped in some crazy zombie nightmare. Some days I spend screaming at the top of my lungs, other days I know it's real and those are my most productive days. I've secured all the zombies in the empty cafeteria, it was weird, like herding cattle they don't attack me and I don't know why. I've salvaged all the medical equipment I could find and taken samples of different zombies; ones who have just bites, ones who have just scratches, some with combinations and then I've looked at my blood, even my brother's blood, it was quite cathartic stabbing him with a needle. I found someone who had died of a gunshot would inflicted by the National guard and quickly learnt that it's not just bites or scratches that make a zombie. I'm very limited on the equipment here, it's only a small hospital. However, I have made some progress and found something odd in my blood, which is different from everything I've tested so far. Lately I've been weighing the pros and cons of leaving the hospital and making my way to the CDC in Atlanta where hopefully Dr Jenner still is and with my strange reaction to this virus we can somehow make a cure, I have no delusions that I can do this on my own I've only just started out in the field and by my age I should still be at university. However, no matter how many pros there are to leave and how much the guilt weighs at me that my reluctance is costing more and more lives each day, I can't leave my brother. I keep saying to myself one more day, he'll wake up, we'll go find Lori and then go get the cure started at the CDC. The decision will be taken out of my hands soon, I'm running out of food.

It's Thursday, I've been keeping track of the days as best I can. Well today is special, it's my birthday, I'm officially 20. I've been saving my favourite chocolate bar for today and as I bite into it I make my birthday wish. Wake up brother. The eternal optimist looks over to my brother hoping against hope that this nightmare will finally turn into a fairy-tale. I let out a big sigh at his continued sleep and begin my day. I need to pack otherwise I will die, I'm under no illusion that my mysteries immunity has turned me invincible I will starve if I stay here indefinitely and the added issue of my continued delay, what if it was Carl or Lori that ended up as one of those things because I've stayed here too long. I take a quick cold shower in Rick's shower room and begin loading up the bags I've half prepped already. I managed to find organ donor storage boxes which I use to keep my samples in, making sure everything is sealed and ladled correctly. I then head to the pharmacy. Three hours later, and quite tired, I return to Rick's room. Something doesn't feel right, but I can't put my finger on it. I start going over things in my head wondering what I'm missing when I finally notice the empty bed.

There was no blood on the bed so he hasn't been eaten by a stray zombie whilst I've been gone which can only mean he's finally woken up and left the hospital, I'm so happy I could cry until I realise how scared he must be waking up into this new world and then I do start crying. For the first time in our relationship I feel like I'm the older one and I need to find Rick and quick. I grab the bags and take them down to the ambulance I've prepared with all the fuel I could siphon from the other vehicles in the parking lot and head to Rick and Lori's house.

It's getting dark when I arrive and Rick is not here. There is no point going out in the dark, I'm not worried about the zombies, I'm more scared of people only having my sleeping brother as company for a month has made me people phobic. I decide to gather together as many things from the house as possible, get a decent nights' sleep and then find him in the morning. I doubt many survivors are in the area so hopefully it won't be too difficult to find him, I just hope he hasn't come across any zombies.

I'm woken by someone yelling. I soon realise the hoarse voice is my now wide awake brother and quickly make my way downstairs.

"Rick!" I say with tears in my eyes

Rick collapses to his knees and I run as fast as I could into my brothers embrace collapsing in a heap on the floor. Its then I notice the two people behind my brother, trust him to manage to find probably the only live people in town. "Hello, I'm Allison Grimes, Rick's sister."

"Nice to meet you Miss Grimes, I'm Morgan, this here is my son Duane, have you been here long?" Morgan replies with a smile on his face, he seems happy to meet me obviously pleased that his new acquaintance Rick, isn't alone.

"I've been at the hospital looking after sleeping beauty for the last month, I leave him alone for five minutes to get the meds out of the pharmacy and he wakes up and walks off!" I say with light humour

"Oh my god Ally-Cat! I'm just so happy to see you." Rick finally talks

"Its ok big brother, we've just got a lot to catch up on. Lori, isn't here, Shane got them out as far as I can tell" I say gritting my teeth, if he notices I'm tense saying Shane's name he doesn't react.

"Next stop is the station, we need some weapons and I think the propane tank will still be full. Should be good for a couple of hot showers" Rick started planning, I forgot some of the things I loved about my big brother is his ability to keep a cool head in crazy situations.

"You had me at weapons" I replied with a smile on my face. "I've got the ambulance outside loaded up with supplies, got meds and other essentials, however low on food and weapons. I think that Shane would have taken Lori and Carl to the Atlanta refugee centre, as long as it hasn't been overrun that's the first place we need to check. But it is imperative I get to the CDC" Morgan's head peaked up at this, I was reluctant to give all the details to the new person even though it was obvious from the way Rick was around this man that they'd already developed a strong bond.

"My sister here is a genius, PhD in microthingys" Rick replied grinning like a proud parent even though he didn't know the exact title of my qualification

"Its molecular biology, dumbass." I replied noticing Rick arching his eyebrow at me for cursing at him. I rolled my eyes, I was just so happy he was next to me. He is not used to me being so carefree, having gone through education so fast surrounded by peers who were often ten or twenty years older than me.

"Wow! Do you think you can find an answer to all this?" Replied Morgan quizzically.

"I don't know, but I've got to try" I reply my tone indicating an end to this conversation.

A few hours later after collecting weapons from the vault in the station and having some nice hot showers with Duane singing it was time to say goodbye to Rick's new friends who had decided to stay and try to deal with Morgan's 'walker' wife. 'Walker' was a strange thing to call the zombies and I didn't like it, it implied they were still alive but after studying the ones that remained at the hospital there was no way that anything of the living survived. We had just walked out the station when the first zombie we had collectively seen came into view. I recognised him immediately, Leon, he was one of Rick's deputies and someone I had gone to school with before being sent to boarding school, he used to rip my books out of my hands and trip me into puddles of mud, my mum always said it was a boy's way of showing they liked you, that made me more sad then all the bullying. Rick didn't think much of him either.

"Wait" I said suddenly making a decision.

"Ally-Cat, I'm sorry about your friend but I can't leave him like this I've got to put him out of his misery" Rick replied thinking I was upset about Leon.

"There's something I need to show you and you will just think I'm crazy if I said it out loud, wait here don't fire and don't freak out OK" I replied looking into my brother's eyes so much like my own, trying to convey my honesty.

"Ok" Rick replied with a worried look on his face, trusting me but cautious.

I entered the station knowing my way as I'd come here often during my summers to help Rick out answering phones. I went out into the courtyard where Leon was against the fence still trying to get to Rick, Morgan and Duane.

"Allison Grimes, what the hell are you doing get away from him!" Rick almost screamed at me.

"Watch" I replied simply. I walked up to Leon, and put my hand on his shoulder, he looked at me with my hand on his shoulder seemed to sniff, then went back to trying to get to my brother and friends who now stood looking as if they'd just witnessed Bigfoot doing a dance wearing a tutu.

"Oh my god" Morgan murmured, "How is this possible?"

I rolled my shirt up showing him the pink line that was still slightly there, "I was scratched, but nothing happened to me, I've got samples in the ambulance, I'm going to take them to the CDC, I needed to show you so you have hope Morgan, for you and your son." I replied trying to convey in my tone that there wasn't any hope for his Jenny. Unfortunately he asked the question

"Can you cure the already infected?" Morgan had too much hope. I had to let him know

"I'm sorry Morgan, anyone who is already turned is too far gone, there is no coming back, I've been doing experiments with my blood and the 'walkers'" I replied still struggling with his word choice but refraining from saying zombie in front of him and his son, I didn't want to destroy his hope completely.

"Thank you for showing this to us Allison, I know you must be scared to reveal this gift to people." Morgan finally replied after thinking

"Ok, I know he's not going to hurt you Ally-Cat, but you standing next to him whilst he's clawing to get to us is starting to freak me out." Rick finally weighed into the conversation.

"Ok big brother, don't get your pants in a twist." I replied. Turing to head back into the station and back towards were my brother was. When I arrived outside, Rick was trying to convince Morgan to come with us one last time.

"I have hope now Rick, but I need to be here a little longer, I'm still a bit rusty with this and I need to teach Duane a few things before we try and venture into the city." He gave Rick a hug muttering something in his ear that I couldn't make out. "Be safe miracle" Morgan continued looking at me with so much hope in his eyes.

Rick took out his Python and shot Leon in the head before leading me back to the ambulance. We had decided it was best to take the ambulance over one of his squad cars as it could carry more supplies and it had fuel stored so we wouldn't run out. We were a mile outside of Atlanta when Rick made the decision to hide the ambulance and use a couple of horses we spotted in a field. Hiding the ambulance inside a garage that was abandoned we saddled up after taking a few supplies and began the ride into the city. The ominous line of traffic headed in the opposite direction concerned me but I didn't want to voice my fears. I spotted the helicopter first, shocked at the prospect of some form of military still in action, I didn't notice the amount of zombies until it was too late. The horse reared up throwing me to the ground. All I heard was my brother yelling my name before I blacked out.

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Rick POV

Watching Allison being thrown off the horse was the second heart stopping moment I'd experienced today, the other one being earlier when she'd stood so calmly next to the walker. I didn't have time to react before the walkers were about to swarm me and my horse. I knew she would be ok from the walkers, I wasn't sure she had survived the fall. I couldn't do anything, I felt so powerless but I had to get away from the walkers. Luckily I spotted the tank, crawling under it and inside I had a moment to collect my thoughts, I knew that I would either die in here or have to wait for Allison to wake up and somehow rescue me, before either decision could be made I heard a crackling of the radio.

"Hey you. In the tank. Cosy in there?"

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Please review.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer – I do not own the walking dead unfortunately. Only Allison.

Note – this story is going to be very different from the TV series. The whole purpose of fanfiction is to take the characters in new unexplored routes. Characters that died will survive and some that are still in the TV show may not make it as long on here. I haven't decided yet. I hope you enjoy.

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Rick POV

"Can you see me?" I asked the anonymous voice on the radio

"Yeah, and you should see this mate, they're having a major freak out" sounding excited by what was happening in the street, but suddenly his tone changed, "Oh my God! How is she still alive?" He must have spotted Allison.

"Is Allison ok?" I asked worriedly, I knew to a new observer that how the walkers reacted to my baby sister would scare and confuse a lot of people and I'd only just woken up to this new world. Morgan whispered in my ear before saying goodbye that she was the most important person in the world, but that was nothing new to me, however, it would be a big deal for everyone else. Before my new friend could reply I head yelling.

"Rick! Rick! Where are you?" I could hear the fear in my sister's voice

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Allison POV

It felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer and made me in to a piñata. Being able to move I guess I am just bruised. I looked to my left and saw what was left of our horses already feeling sorry for the beautiful animals whose lives had ended due to mine and my brother's stupidity of coming into the city. Thinking of my brother I couldn't see him anywhere and then I started to freak out.

"Rick! Rick! Where are you?" I yelled, but it wasn't my brother that answered.

"Hey. Up here!" I heard someone shout, looking around to the tops of the buildings that surrounded the narrow street I finally spotted the source of the voice. A young Asian man was sat on the rooftop of a building looking at me with wide unbelieving eyes.

"Hi, how are you doing today?" I asked in a cheery voice, I must have banged may head harder than I thought, I sound like I'm talking to a neighbour out in the garden, I thought I might as well run with it. "Happen to see a bloke who looks like he's come out of a bad western around here?"

"Erm... Yeah sure, he's in the tank…. How are you still alive?" I would have laughed at how the guy sounded but I had bigger things to worry about, sure the dead don't bother me but that's not the case for my brother, I couldn't lose him after getting him this far.

"I would love to talk about this more but we don't have the time." I said gesturing to the zombies that had noticed the talking human on the rooftop.

"Ok sure" The mystery man said still talking as if he was dreaming, "Alley way two buildings that way." He continued pointing to the right, away from the majority of the zombies who were still making a meal of the poor horses. He talked into his radio and the tank lid slowly crept open revealing my brother. I sighed in relief at seeing him, however, I soon noticed that too many zombies had perked up at the sight of fresh meat. Running to a nearby car I honked the horn drawing them towards the sound and away from Rick, I then ran back to my brother to help with the ones that didn't fall for my trick. Together we took down six or seven zombies before coming to the alley the man had indicated.

"Not dead! Not dead!" The young man yelled indicating for us to follow him before heading to a ladder in the alley. I let both the men go first seeing as how my immunity/invisibility put me at the least risk so far. We climbed up to the fire escape platform and I could see the questions running through his mind. "Immune, don't know how, they don't notice me, I don't know why so can't explain. I'm Allison this one's baby sister let's get out of here. Ok?" I don't think he could talk much so tried to answer as many questions as he could think of.

After a brief pause all I got was "Glenn" with the biggest smile anyone has probably given. Thankful to finally have a name instead of referring to him as Asian or young man, which in itself was weird looking at him now I could tell he was at least three years older than me.

Just before I was about to head up to the roof of the building I remembered that our supplies were left in the street, it wasn't much but everything counted nowadays, we had left the majority of weapons hidden in the ambulance, unsure what awaited in the city. I had packed what I thought was essential to get us through a couple of nights all that remained in the bag was a couple of guns; a few hunting knifes; the CB radio; a small first aid kit; four bottles of water; a few cans of food and a fresh change of clothes for each of us.

"Rick I need to get our bag" I reminded my brother.

"My group are held up in _Bloomingdales_ but due to the noise you guys made the front is surrounded" Glenn advised us.

"Get the bag go around the front see if there is any way you can draw them off." My brother told me. It was nice knowing he trusted me and my abilities to get this done. "Glenn, can I have your radio for a minute?" Glenn passed his radio to Rick, I watched as my brother checked the frequency and flipped it onto the one we generally used. One of the highlights when I was home from school from vacations was being able to talk to Rick when he was at work on the radio he allowed me to keep, we always kept a channel we could talk on and even taught me Morse Code that I could use if the distance didn't allow a strong enough signal for words to get through. "Keep in touch" He looked at me like he was scolding me, I hate that look.

I gave Rick a hug, "see you soon big brother" smiled at Glenn and climbed back down the ladder towards the ravenous mob of undead my brother smiling at me the whole time and Glenn looking gobsmacked as the dead didn't react at all. I calmly walked back out the alley and past the walkers to grab the stuff. I made sure to take out the CB radio and headed to the front of my favourite store. Glenn was right it was surrounded, and the way this group were riled up I didn't see any chance of me being able to draw them away. I was just about to start making noises to see if they would react when suddenly bullets started firing from the roof.

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Rick POV

Glenn led me across the buildings towards the back door of a building where two people ran out in riot gear to cover our entrance. Entering through the door I was immediately set upon by a blonde lady, "we're dead because of you" she sneered pointed a gun at me, My concern disappeared when I noticed she'd left the safety on, it was a miracle she was still alive in this crazy world. I noticed I was in a storage room, there was the blonde pointing the gun at me; A fragile looking black woman who looked to be in her forties; an Hispanic man who appeared to be around my age whom was one of the men in riot gear; the final man was a tough looking black man with a scowl on his face obviously not pleased at the new arrival.

"Whoa! Whoa! Andrea. You don't understand!" Glenn said directing everyone's attention towards him, probably about to tell them about Allison. Before he could explain further we heard the unmistakable sound of bullets, I worried for a second that Allison was in danger but it soon became clear that they had someone else who was firing from the roof, into the crowd of walkers at the front of the store. My first thought was for my sister, she's immune from walkers not from bullets. I felt sick of the thought of her being in danger, her weird immunity making me forget the other perils she would be facing in this world, and I just sent her off with a smile and a hug.

"Is that Dixon?" Andrea uttered in disbelief. The group leaving the storage room we were in to investigate. As we entered the store I saw the mass of walkers trying to get into the building but couldn't see Allison so I hoped she was elsewhere. I grabbed my radio and held it to create the signal we always used I heard two clicks back and sighed with relief, that was the 'I'm ok' clicks. I did the same in return quickly and headed up the roof.

On the roof stood what could only be described as a crazy redneck. He looked to be in his late forties, he had on a leather vest top exposing his tattoos, some were personal however I noticed the service badge indicating he'd been in the military at some point, but right now he looked to be high on something that was causing him to think that he could take out the hundred strong hoard of walkers with just a tiny pistol.

"Merle, what the hell are you doing." The man Hispanic man yelled. Merle started yelling racist insults at the men and a fight quickly broke out.

"See. I think the man with the gun should be in charge. Don't ya agree" Merle sneered holding his gun to the black man's head.

Suddenly my training kicks in, I hit Merle with the butt of the rifle I had in my hands and punched him in the face before handcuffing him to a pipe. "Things are different now, there's _us_ and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart." I held a gun to Merle's head, "I'm just looking for my wife and son with my kid sister." Some of the others in the groups' heads snap up at that, not knowing about Allison yet. I pat Merle down and find his stash of drugs quickly throwing them off the roof. "Now I've done you a favor, just calm down and we can all get out of here." It felt nice to take charge of a situation again, from the time I'd woken it was my baby sister leading me around like I was a lost little puppy but with these people I could regain something I thought I'd left behind, leadership.

"What sister?" Andrea asked

Before I could answer I heard my sister on the radio, "BB, I can't do anything out here, I'm sorry, you've got to think of another way out. Over." My sister sounded out of breathe and worried.

"It's ok AC, I'll get back to you in a minute, you safe for now? Over" 'AC' stood for Ally-Cat whereas 'BB' stood for big brother, those were our handles for each other over the CB to avoid any cross chat and keep as private as possible.

"I'm in the tank BB, wanted to check if there was anything cool inside. Over" I rolled my eyes, sometimes I forget with how smart she is how much of a kid she still could be.

"Wait till you meet her, she's amazing" Glenn told the group. I guessed he wanted Allison to be a surprise and from the looks on their faces they assumed that Glenn was smitten not the actual reason he was so excited about her and that we had become separated somehow.

"Right we need another way out of here" I addressed the group. "How about underground?" I start suggesting ideas hoping someone in the group has something.

The black woman puts up her hand to gain my attention, I nod to her, "I used to work in the city zoning office, an old building like this will have basement access to the sewers." She replied confidently, "Jackie" she continued when I smiled and nodded at her.

"Thank you Jackie, let's go take a look." I lead the group this time back down from the roof, Merle yelling at us for leaving him alone. Just as we walked down the stairs I heard a loud rumble followed by an explosion.

"Oops" I head come through the radio

* * *

Allison POV

Taking cover from the bullets I headed back onto what I decided to call 'Horse Street' in honor of our fallen friends; really starting to feel a bit dizzy from the fall, think I might be concussed. Trust me to start acting loopy with a head injury. Rick got to have all the fun today, he's in my favorite store, probably has no idea he's in one of the best stores in Atlanta for women's fashion oh and he got to go in a tank! I mean seriously, who does that. I see the tank roof still open and think 'what the hell might as well see if there are any goodies inside.' Before I climb up I hear the static clicks that indicate Rick is trying to establish contact. I send the two clicks back to let him know I'm ok and continue my ascent of the massive tank.

As I climb inside I'm immediately hit with the smell of rotten flesh and notice the dead zombie in the corner. He still has a couple of weapons on his belt, a nice knife which I take along with a grenade clipped to his belt which I add to my bag of supplies, that might come in handy at some point. I'm just about to continue my search of some of storage facilities aboard when I remember I should probably let Rick know I'd failed in my primary mission, seeing the dead military man got me thinking like one "BB, I can't do anything out here, I'm sorry, you've got to think of another way out. Over." I made sure to use our codenames but I couldn't keep the worry out of my voice.

"It's ok AC, I'll get back to you in a minute, you safe for now? My brother replied obviously concerned about me, I suppose the bullets from the roof might have freaked him out a bit.

"I'm in the tank BB, wanted to check if there was anything cool inside. Over" I replied, I realized I must have sounded ok and excited as I never got another reply. I assumed he was busy and continued my search. I found quite a lot of interesting things, the instruction manual for the tank was in here, that was an interesting find, I assumed the military would have to keep that sort of thing away from the tank in case someone climbed into use it, oh well, lucky me. I found a stash of weapons and added everything I knew we had the ammunition for into my bag which was becoming very packed quickly. I decided to remove some things to make room. I took out my change of clothes to change into along with the small first aid kit that would fit in my pocket. I took out some of the smaller guns and ankle straps to place them on, along with my belt that I could attach some knifes to. After getting dressed and equipped knowing I probably looked a lot like Lara Croft right now rather than Allison Grimes PhD graduate I couldn't help but smile.

I started to wonder if the tank still worked, Due to all the studying I had done at a young age I was a very fast reader. I read through the main section of operating the tank and attempted to turn it on. I noticed the fuel gage stayed almost at zero and figured it would only be good for a few meters at best. I started playing around with some of the gears and the tank started moving down the street back towards the store. It was very noisy and I noticed out the small window that many of the zombies started to come towards the tank. Unfortunately I was leading more of them to the store, not getting them away. Before I could change direction and draw them away a warning light came on and the tank ground to a halt. Out of fuel. I banged my hands on the console and the tank fired. I closed my eyes hoping I hadn't hit the store or made it more difficult for my brother. I looked out the window of the tank and noticed that I'd hit the bank four stores away from Bloomingdales. "Oops" I said into the radio, knowing there was no way Rick didn't hear that.

"AC. What do you mean Oops? Over" Rick responded quite calmly but scolding, I wasn't shocked, he often used that tone of voice when he knew I'd done something bad, like the time when Shane had talked his cousin; Jack, into taking me to his high school prom and I didn't come home until 10am, two days later. Rick thought his sixteen year old sister, who already had one degree I might add, had done the stereotypical hook up at prom thing and then eloped, he found a receipt for the hotel I had gone to in my purse when he searched it like I was a criminal. The reality was I had left early to go to a symposium on the Ebola virus, problem was it was in Las Vegas. Even more amusing was he was more mad that I hadn't acted like a typical sixteen year old would and I was in more trouble than I would have been had I gone off somewhere with Jack. My brother hated that I had grown up too quickly. In my defense it was a good thing I didn't go anywhere with Jack, he was just like his cousin and had a bet going and webcam already set up at the house he planned to take me back to. Like I didn't already hack his emails and find out about that; luckily Rick didn't find out about the hacking thing, he doesn't know I know how to do that. That would warrant an even more I'm the grown up tone than he's using right now.

"I may have accidentally, blown up …. _A bank_ " I whispered the last two words hoping he would just get passed it and move on. No such luck.

"AC. Repeat last. It sounded like you said you blow up a bank. Over" he sounded incredulous. Wishing my brother didn't have super hearing right about now.

"It was an accident. Yes a bank. Less zombies outside your store now. Over" I replied in my defense. It was silent for quite a few minutes, I started to get worried but then remembered; I'm in a tank. I'm in charge. Realizing my thoughts were taking a very unsisterly like turn I decided to get back to my packing and organizing of supplies from the tank. I came across something that made me cry. It was a picture of the dead army man on the floor and a little girl no older than three, on the back it said 'Ella and her daddy' it made me pause, it was so easy in this new world to forget that the zombies are us. It made me think of all the other families that were out there possibly losing their lives right now and here I am able to walk around amongst the zombies with nothing happening to me. I needed answers, I need to get to Doctor Jenner, who I hope is still at the CDC and find a way to help people like the man lying dead a few feet from me.

Before my thoughts could drift anymore away from me Rick finally came back on the radio. "AC. Head to the construction site four blocks west of the store. Over." The urgency in his voice made me act quickly. Grabbing the bag of supplies I climbed out the tank, the zombies around only reacting to the sounds I was making as I climbed. Due to the street being full of walkers I took a different route to the construction site going around the back of the building and then running to get to the fence.

I started to worry about what I needed to do now, I didn't want to contact Rick on the radio in case he was in a radio silence needed situation. Just as I was about to give into temptation to contact Rick I saw two zombies running. Thinking my concussion must have started to produce hallucinations I blinked and tried to focus on the running zombies finally realizing they weren't zombies but my brother and Glenn disguised with intestines and other body parts hanging from their clothes. I quickly climbed over the fencing of the construction site waiting for them to do the same. "I would hug you but you look and smell disgusting" I told my brother when they climbed the fence. The zombies that had followed them started to claw at the fence to get to them, I knew it wouldn't be long until enough of them got the fence down.

"We are going to take a van each" Rick instructed gesturing to the vans that were parked in the construction lot. "Glenn is going to get a car to drive and draw them away from the store whilst I get the others of his group out though the service exit. I need you to go in after us and load up as much supplies as you can from the store. I know you can take your time, Glenn here tells me they're camped at the quarry just outside the city, the one we used to go on camping trips with mum and dad, do you remember?" Rick had his thoughts clearly organized giving out directions like a military general but still with a hint of trepidation due to the situation. I nodded and Rick continued. "They've got a large group, women and children, maybe someone has seen our family."

I smiled at my brother and went to the construction office returning with several sets of keys. After getting the correct keys for both vans we knew it was time to go, the dead were getting more persistent in their attempts to get the fence down. I handed Rick the bag with all the supplies in it as he would need it more than me. "Stay on the radio. Don't travel at night. Avoid other people." My brother gave his final instruction and left the lot, knocking down the gate on his way out. I waited inside the van for about twenty minutes not wanting to draw the dead back in with my van before Rick could get the others out. I heard out signal come over the CB on the seat next to me and started driving towards the store. I parked the van in the storage entrance which was still opened from when Rick must have left, I was just about to start my pillage of the store when my brother's voice came back through the radio. "AC come in over." He sounded worried

"Hear you BB. Is something wrong? Over." I replied instantly

"There is a man in handcuffs on the roof. I put him there for the safety of the group but he wasn't meant to be left behind. Over" That didn't sound like my brother, to leave someone in this hellhole, well he left me here but I'm immune so there's a big difference.

"I'll get him. Over" I replied knowing that I couldn't leave someone here, especially on the roof. It was approaching the height of summer now and although it was passed mid-day temperatures could still get uncomfortable.

"Be …, he's been on some …. Name … Merle. Over" my brother instructed. I noticed on his transmission that some of the words were fading out obviously moving away from the city the radios were losing their signal.

"See you soon. BB. Over" I replied sadly hoping that would be the case. My brother didn't reply so I hoped everything was ok. I decided to check out the situation with Merle first, didn't want him to leave the roof whilst I was here. Heading into the store I saw a few zombies but nothing to be too concerned about, most of them must have reacted to the car that even I heard with its alarm blaring. I headed to what I assumed were the stairs for the roof access. These stairs were not free of the dead, in fact there were dozens all trying to get up the stairs spurred on by the lead zombie banging against a door that must be shut at the top. The zombies were so tightly packed that I wouldn't be able to get past them. I needed a distraction.

I headed outside into the street over all the smashed glass of the entrance to see if there was any other access points to the roof, possibly via a fire escape. I soon noticed that there was a fire exit that went half way up the building and decided to try that. The steps brought be into the office section of the store for the administrative staff. There were a couple of zombies here probably those who came into work not knowing the bites they had gotten from either friends or family would turn them into raging zombies, poor people. I saw another access point for the roof through the employee kitchen possibly to allow employees to go outside for a smoke without having to go through the store. What I found made me sick. The man Merle, obviously a redneck, should have guessed from the name, was starting to hack at his hand with a saw. I screamed.

"Ooh angel come to sen' ol' Merle on his way" the redneck responded drunkenly.

"Don't be stupid. I'm real. Now stop slicing your hand." Merle still looked at me like I was crazy as I quickly knelt beside him to check the damage. "You're lucky, you haven't gotten far yet." I talked to myself as Merle was now slumped over unconscious. I removed the medical kit from my pocket and started to tidy him up a bit. "You know, if you wanted out of the cuff all you need to chop off was a finger, not your whole hand" I don't know why I was saying it out loud, probably just to distract myself from the situation. I was ok with blood and other injuries having worked in hospitals as an intern for experience and to try out different fields to see what my specialism would be after gaining my first medical degree. Lucky for Merle one of my rotations was in an Emergency Room doing stitches on injuries just like this one, though I struggled to recall any of the people I helped deliberately trying to slice off their own hand to get out of handcuffs. I do remember someone who had more of their faculties chopping off their little finger.

After making sure Merle was stitched up I looked at ways I could get him out the cuffs. Obviously the blade was too dull to cut through the metal, he would have tried that already, he didn't take me as the type to not try the option that would allow him to keep his hand. Deciding that Merle was going to be out for a bit I checked the door noticing the zombies trying to get through it. I used a metal crowbar from the ground to stab the first one and pushed him back allowing the door to fully close. I kept quiet and the dead stopped, seeming to forget someone was on the roof. As I was thinking about what to do I heard screaming in the distance and the unmistakable sound of footsteps on the stairs. Looking over the edge of the building the dead started filing out, drawn to the unknown victim who just sounded the dinner call. Happy that Merle was going to be out of it for a while I made sure to move all sharp objects out of his reach so he wouldn't wake up and try again whilst I was gone and go back on with the initial task assigned by my brother.

The van was loaded, I'd got enough supplies in it to clothe an army. I had even cleared out all the non-perishable foods from the staff cafeteria and restaurant. I had ventured next door to a camping store emptying it of as much equipment as I could fit in the truck, including; a few tents; a gazebo; sleeping bags and outdoor cooking equipment. I felt really proud of myself. As I was going to and from the store and van I noticed that almost all the zombies had left spare a few stragglers which I put down myself. I grabbed some water, food, the gazebo and a couple of sleeping bags and headed back to the roof, there was no way to get Merle off the roof without some bolt cutters and on my own I didn't want to venture more than a block in case I ran into other survivors who weren't as nice as Glenn was.

"Ya 'r' real" Merle exclaimed as I joined him back on the roof.

"Nice to meet you too Merle, I'm Allison Grimes." I responded in my most calm and gentle voice remembering all the lessons I had learnt at hospitals dealing with patients coming down from drug highs.

"Grimes. Not related to officer friendly 'r' ya angel" I grimaced at my new nickname "'Cos I don't like officer friendly very much right now" he said gesturing to the handcuffs still attached.

"Sister." Merle scowled struggling even more with the cuff "Now don't you scowl at me Mr. If it wasn't for me you would be trying to survive the zombie apocalypse with five digits instead of the lovely ten you're currently waving at me." I berated him "and don't start pulling too hard, I'm proud of those stiches" Merle looked down finally noticing where I'd patched him up.

"'hank ya. Now hows about you get me out of these so we can go survive this 'zombie 'pocalypse' together" Merle growled suggestively.

"Thanks for the offer Merle, but I think you're too old for me" I replied with a smirk. Merle rolled his eyes not seeming too affected. As he did I saw something familiar in him but I couldn't put my finger on it. Putting it down to lack of sleep I decided to get prepared to settle in for the night.

"Ya don't know what ya missin' angel. Ol' Merle's got a lot of things he could teach a pretty little thin' like' ya" I rolled my eyes and continued on with assembling the gazebo. The gazebo would provide cover from the elements as I couldn't get Merle into a tent due to being cuffed to the pipe. I passed Merle his own sleeping bag silently and rolled mine out a good distance from Merle so he couldn't reach me.

"I don't have anything to get you out of those cuffs, I'm going to contact my brother so he can come and get us." I then tried to contact my brother. After trying for a good thirty minutes I finally resorted to Morse code and received our coded reply. I typed out the one thing that would get us off this roof - 'bolt cutters'.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed next chapter will be all Rick POV from when he leaves Atlanta to returning for Allison. Any suggestions on what you would like in there and I may try and incorporate some of the ideas. I have it mostly planned out but always changing things round. Hoping to update within a week. Review, like or follow please.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer – as always I don't own TWD.

Couldn't wait for suggestions this chapter has been going through my head all night. Please review

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Rick POV

Looking in the rear view mirror driving away from Allison was difficult. The last two hours have been a crazy journey for me I can't imagine how Allison must be feeling. My sister has always been special, I don't mean that in that she's weird, I guess the better way to describe her would be extraordinary. By the time she was five she was answering questions that a college student would find difficult; Shane had laughed at me when I'd passed my Cadet assignment to my six year old sister to proof read, he stopped laughing when I got a special commendation and he had to redo the assignment when the instructor said it sounded like a child had written it. When our parents died I nearly fell apart; Lori was seven months pregnant at the time with Carl, and Allison would look at me like I hung the moon and stars all together. If it wasn't for Lori I wouldn't have made it through those dark times, her strength gave me the power to make the right decision for my sister; she needed more than I could provide. At the time Allison hated Lori, blaming her for sending her away, however, I had never been more proud of my sister, when six months ago during her valedictorian speech the first person she thanked was Lori. My strong wife burst into tears of happiness, I knew how much Lori loved Allison like she was her own child and hearing that acknowledgment meant the world to her. I needed to find Lori, not only for me, but for Allison, coping with all the world was about to throw at her, we would both need Lori's strength. I saw the way that Glenn looked at Allison and I could only imagine how the rest of the group would react to her, I don't want my sister to be treated like a science experiment or get hurt in the pursuit of answers to this unimaginable horror. It wasn't the walkers I feared now, it was people.

I drove Glenn out of the city towards the lines of traffic to find a car he could use to lure the walkers away from the store, his eyes lit up so much when I suggested the bright red sports car. If I wasn't so stressed about Allison I might have wanted to drive it myself. We smashed a window to set off an alarm, "Don't get too close to them, we don't want them trying to get in through that window" I reminded Glenn hoping to keep him grounded in his job.

"This is so cool!" He shouted over the loud noise of the car. Thankfully the keys were still in the ignition, I tried not to think of the person this car once belonged to. Hopefully when this nightmare is over we will have time to reflect and pay thanks to all that were lost.

"Remember this is not a game, concentrate. We aren't out of the woods yet." It was like talking to Carl, I know I was being hard on the guy but we still had a long way to go before we were safe. Glenn seemed to steal himself quickly and climbed in the car to drive away. I gave him a head start making sure that the initial distraction wasn't destroyed by my arrival. It worked brilliantly, got everyone loaded into the back of my van and we were away. I used the radio to transmit out code so that Allison would know she could arrive at the store and we were away.

After driving for about ten minutes I heard a bang from the back of the van and a slide panel opened between the cab of the van and the storage area. "Yo man. I'm really sorry I dropped the key" T-Dog said regretfully. This meant that Merle was dead, the guilt on my face must have been evident. "Nah man don't feel bad he was one of the worst, but I couldn't leave him tied like that to be mauled on by geeks, I chained the door before leaving, ain't none of 'em gonna get to him. He's still stuck there." I smiled, T-Dog must have thought I was crazy, I keep forgetting he doesn't know about Allison yet.

"Don't worry about it, he'll be fine." T-Dog looked at me dubiously and closed the panel. "AC come in over." I immediately spoke into my radio, to get my sister's help

"Hear you BB. Is something wrong? Over." She came back quickly, I noticed that the message had more static behind it, we must be losing signal, I had to make this quick.

"There is a man in handcuffs on the roof. I put him there for the safety of the group but he wasn't meant to be left behind. Over" I knew she would help, she is a lot like me in that respect.

"I'll get him. Over" There was no doubt she would get to Merle, I was only concerned with how Merle would react to her.

"Be careful, he's been on some drugs. Name is Merle. Over" I instructed. I didn't get a reply. I hoped it was just signal causing interference and we would be able to get in touch soon. I didn't have long to think of it as we were soon approaching the quarry. I had been here a few times over the years with my parents; Allison and Shane. I hadn't brought Lori and Carl here as it brought back memories for me and Allison with our parents, the last time we came here was two weeks before their deaths. Lori was too pregnant to come; it would have been her first time. Shane didn't come that time either he was too busy chasing some girl around and didn't want to miss out by going camping for the weekend with his best friend and what he called bratty sister, who was smarter than he was. It was one of the last times we were all together as a four, the arguments that my parents had been having about Allison's schooling were forgotten; the stress of becoming a new parent for me was cast aside. Looking back on it, it was the perfect way to remember my parents, which is why we never came back here, I wanted to preserve the last memory and not create a new one to replace it.

It was hard being back here, I stayed in the front of the van as everyone piled out greeting their campmates and loved ones. I saw Andrea run into the arms of a girl who I assumed was her sister Amy, I found it funny in the store she was ashamed to take a necklace for her due to my presence. Morales ran to a woman with two small children at her feet. That brought tears to my eyes and made me think of Lori and Carl.

"Yo, helicopter boy come say hello" Morales suddenly called back to me, breaking me out of my train of thought. As I stepped out of the van I had to shield my eyes slightly the sun blaring down on me.

"Dad!" I heard a familiar shout

"Carl!" I yelled back running and catching my boy in my arms. Lori came over too looking like she'd seen a ghost. Everyone stood around with tears in their eyes, pleased that I was reunited with my family. I looked up and saw Shane, who also had a gob smacked look on his face I gave him a small nod in thanks for saving my family.

"How is this possible?" Lori muttered glancing between me and Shane. Allison had told me Shane had gone with her to get me at the hospital, he must have assumed I was dead.

"Allison" I uttered back reverently

"Nah man that's not possible, Allison was scratched, saw it myself." Shane answered finally coming into the conversation. The rest of the crowd now looked on weary, probably thinking I had lost my mind out there alone. I looked at the department store group for support realizing they didn't know Allison except for Glenn who had unfortunately wondered off, probably saying goodbye to his new wheels before the car was torn apart for other uses.

"Allison is special, brother." I tried to convey understanding with my eyes but I don't think he got my point.

"Yeah she's always been a bit weird mate, but no amount of brain power would save her from a scratch. What really happened out there?" After almost thirty years of friendship I would have expected the man I considered another sibling to believe in me. Saying that, I should have expected some hostility from Shane, he and Allison never got along well, he resented her for taking me away from him when we were teenagers and then further when she proved to be smarter than him at the age of three. We were watching Jeopardy in the front room; my parents had gone out for the evening leaving me to look after Allison. Shane had come over wanting to hang out and only stuck around after I begged him. At 19 Shane would rather be doing anything other than watching TV with my little sister. Allison had never liked cartoons they bored her, she would rather read a book than watch cartoons, that should have been all the warnings needed that may little Allie-Cat was a genius. The question was, 'Ba is the symbol for this whitish metal whose compounds are used in radiology' Shane had replied with 'who the hell cares' to which Allison responded in her sweet bell like voice 'Barium' we had both sat there shocked. I asked Allison how she knew that, she wondered off to her little shelf on the bookcase brought out one of the books she had been reading, which was a book on twelfth grade science, she diligently found the page on radiology and pointed to the metal which was labelled barium. Shane called Allison and freak and she burst out in tears. I asked Shane to leave and he stopped hanging around when I had Allison after that and the hostility between them never ended.

"Hey guys, has he told you about Allison yet? Isn't it amazing? Maybe she can save everyone?!" Glenn exclaimed having returned not noticing the tension in the group he had left.

Everyone looked to me to explain what Glenn was talking about. "Allison was scratched, she didn't turn. Her arm healed it just has a white line there now, but, she is invisible to walkers" I paused letting the group soak in what I had just said. "She stayed with me at the hospital cleared out a load of supplies that we've got hidden in an ambulance down the road from here, she spent the month with me testing out samples on her blood and walkers blood, but she doesn't know what caused it, only she's different" I paused, "and immune." The group erupted into noise, people were firing questions at me all at once, and some stood there in shocked silence. Lori had tears in her eyes obviously pleased that her other 'child' was still alive.

"Where is she?!" one of the other members of the camp shouted at me. He was a rough looking man, dressed like a trucker with a baseball cap on his head, at his side stood a meek looking woman with very short grey hair and a young girl who looked shocked and scared.

"She's back in Atlanta loading up all the supplies she can into a van about the same size as this one. She's also going to get Merle from the roof." I muttered finally bringing the groups attention to the fact Merle wasn't with us.

"How could you leave a girl like that in the city, yeah she don't have to worry about no walkers, but what if another group get her or Merle hurts her. I wouldn't put it passed him" Another member of the group snarled at me. I could understand their anger, I had just revealed a possible solution to this nightmare and she wasn't with me right now. Before I could answer any more questions or accusations I heard the familiar clicks on my radio, followed by Morse code that I'd taught to Allison. Shane obviously interpreted it as well

"Why would she need bolt cutters?" he questioned.

* * *

After various arguments it was decided a small group of us would head back into the city early tomorrow morning. Sitting by the fire recounting when I first woke up alone was a surreal experience, the group laughed when I told them how my little sister had scolded me when she finally found me back at the house. I learned more about the diverse group that had made the quarry their sanctuary. I couldn't help but notice the tension between Shane and Lori, something was going on there but I didn't want to focus on that right now, the most important thing was reuniting with Allison and getting her somewhere where we could find a solution to all this mess.

"Has anyone given any thought to Daryl Dixon?" Dale, an older man who owned the Winnebago asked.

"Merle's safe, Allison wouldn't leave him. If he gets back from his hunt before we leave tomorrow he can come with us." I suggested diplomatically. I received a few nods from who I counted as the key members of the group; Shane, Dale, Morales and T-Dog. After Shane dealt with Ed and his fire the majority of people returned to their tents. Lori and Carl directed me to theirs, I could tell Carl was reluctant to go sleep, probably scared he would wake up and I wouldn't be there.

Eventually he drifted off after having me promise not to go anywhere. Lori tried to return my wedding ring but as I looked in her eyes I saw the apprehension there. "Is there something going on with you and Shane" I whispered conscious of the fact Carl was sleeping very close to us. Her eyes filled with tears and she looked down.

"I thought you were dead" She answered sorrowfully giving me all the answer I needed. I was very hurt, this was my wife and a man I had been friends with since the age of five, but the world had changed now. I closed my eyes trying to centre myself.

"Do you love him?" This was one of the hardest questions to ask as the answer could destroy me. I didn't need the answer when I looked into her eyes, Lori paused but then reluctantly nodded her head, the tears pouring down her eyes. I could feel the tears in my own eyes. "It's ok, I understand" I muttered trying to reassure myself as well as her. "I need you to go to his tent" Lori started shaking her head about to protest. "Listen… if you stay in here Shane is going to think you've abandoned him. I've known that man nearly all my life, if you stay here with me it's going to eat away at him. We can deal with everything when we get somewhere settled ok. I'll always be there for you Lori, we'll always have Carl. I just can't deal with this right now. Please" I begged quietly. Lori nodded at me and left the tent. I couldn't sleep for the longest time running through the day in my head, I'd gone from searching for my family, finding them only to lose Lori again. It was going to be difficult living in a group with my ex and her boyfriend/former best friend. There would be arguments but we had to do right by Carl. I looked over at my boy and saw the small smile on his face as he slept. I finally drifted off.

* * *

Shane POV

I sat inside my tent in shock, I'd stayed outside for a bit but when Lori had gone into the tent with Rick it felt like I'd been stabbed in the chest. I grabbed one of the bears the group had brought back from Atlanta and disappeared into my tent so I wouldn't hear them together. I wish he was really dead. I couldn't believe Allison was alive and had this ability to be around walkers safely, it was difficult leaving her at the hospital, even though we never really got on I always saw her as a little sister as she got older she became slightly less annoying as it became more alright for her to be so smart. I felt guilty, if I had taken her with me we would have been safer and possibly had answers to this already. I was brought out of my thoughts by the tent unzipping, Lori entered and rushed into my arms, I was in shock.

"He knows" She finally managed to answer through tears. I was in shock, Rick had let her go, and that was the only explanation. I felt like a complete jerk for wishing he was dead. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but we had a chance now. I had Lori, and eventually we would have answers when we got Allison from Atlanta. I fell asleep happier than I'd been since this whole thing started.

* * *

Rick POV

In the light things always look different, but waking up at the quarry after a rough night's sleep I actually felt at ease with the world. I decided a fresh start is what we all needed so the three of us went and had a conversation about how to approach Carl with the new situation. I was shocked at how well we got on it almost felt like a storyline from Modern Family and I guess that's what we are now, everyone in this camp; a family, with my little dysfunctional circle at the centre. Carl took it very well, he understood that whilst Lori and I wouldn't be together it didn't change the fact that we both loved him and he was just gaining a parent. The fact that Shane had always been a part of his life made the transition smoother.

Carl had run off to play with some of the kids in camp whilst I gathered things together for the journey back to Atlanta. I made sure I had the map and spot marked for where the ambulance was left, Allison would shoot me if that was left behind; she had mentioned it had samples she'd taken but didn't have the specialist equipment to analyse. The van was loaded and we were about to leave when I heard the screams of fear from the kids. Running toward the children along with Jim, Morales, Shane and Glenn we found Sophia and Carl alright but visibly shaken, they pointed to where they had just come from. On the ground lay a deer, it had two bolts in its rear flank and a walker feasting on it. The five of us started to hit the walker with the bats and shovels we had picked up whilst running to defend the children when Dale arrives and decapitates it. "This is the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain," he informed me

"They're running out of food in the city, that's what," Jim adds.

We suddenly heard something or someone else approaching from the bushes, Shane raised his gun ready to take down any new threat when a man, obviously Merle's brother, emerged from the woods carrying a crossbow and several squirrels tied to a string. He started suggesting to cut away the mauled on parts to salvage the deer. Dale tried to calm him down. I knew the situation was going to be delicate with the Dixon's; Daryl will be angry his brother was left and Merle will just be angry in general, I could already tell that Daryl was a key member of the group; from conversation about the fire last night it was mentioned that he and his brother have a lot of hunting skills and had provided the group with all their fresh meat. I hope Allison can tame the beast somewhat before we arrive, she seems to have a thing about rednecks I remember her telling me about her first crush and heartbreak, she would never tell me his name in fear I would use my police connections to track him down, all she did tell me was he was a bit of a redneck, probably trying to wind me up as I'd always teased her that she was married to her science equipment. Daryl moved over towards the decapitated walker and nearly got his ankle bitten by the still active head. "Come on people, what the hell? It's gotta be the brain — don't y'all know nothin'?" he sneered before heading into camp shouting for Merle.

Shane starts trying to explain the situation to Daryl, before I can intervene to other reassurances about Merle a fight broke out between the pair, resulting with Daryl being placed in a headlock. "Choke holdin's illegal!" Daryl argues struggling against Shane's hold.

"Listen to me." I paused gaining his attention. "I'm Rick, Merle is perfectly safe, he's with my sister, now I know that doesn't sound safe but trust me; there is no one who can protect your brother better than her." I explained to him trying to get him to calm down. "We are leaving in ten minutes to go pick them up. I'm hoping if you're calm about it we can go together" I instructed the angry redneck. I noticed that whilst the brothers were quite similar in build there was a large age gap, whilst I would say Merle was in his late forties, Daryl looked more like early thirties. I wondered briefly if the siblings had shared a similar relationship like I had with my sister growing up. Daryl nodded tentatively and Shane released him.

Goodbyes were said to the group with Carl nearly in tears not wanting me to go. He understood that I had to bring his Auntie Allie back but was obviously scared. It was decided earlier that Glenn would definitely accompany me; having been going on runs since the camp set up, T-Dog had volunteered to come if Daryl didn't get back to camp on time so with Daryl now in our group T-Dog remained to help in camp. On the way to the city I told Daryl that my sister was immune and that she was just there still gathering up supplies, he seemed dubious about this new miracle but accepted it.

Arriving at the store I could tell my sister had been a busy bee, there were no walkers left in the store she'd secured all but one entrance to allow us to return for her and a lot of the clothes that were here earlier were gone obviously packed into the van we passed in the service entrance. Daryl had his crossbow up primed as we climbed the stairs. As we got closer to the top we could hear murmured voices; something that sounded like music and male laughter, Daryl looked shocked. Glenn took the bolt cutters we'd borrowed from Dale and cut the chain on the door. Opening it to one of the weirdest sights I'd seen in a while, which was saying a lot considering the army of dead that always seemed to surround us. My sister was sat on the ground next to a smiling Merle Dixon playing poker. They had a gazebo set up with the opening pointing our direction, they had a small table they were playing cards on with a box containing drinks a little stove going making something that smelled amazing and a small stereo playing jazz music quite low in the background. It looked like they'd come out for a picnic. As we came onto the roof Allison looked up and smiled. As soon as her eyes met Daryl's I knew something was off. I heard Daryl mutter something under his breathe almost reverently and Allison looked the happiest I'd ever seen her, she jumped up nearly knocking over the table of cards, to which Merle grumbled, ran and jumped into Daryl's arms and kissed him like he was the love of her life. What shocked me more was that Daryl kissed her back. Hard.

Merle looked at me laughing, "So Officer Friendly, should 'a call ya brother-in-law now?"

* * *

More to come soon. Got lots of ideas for this story. Please review and let me know what you think plus any suggestions you might have. Coming up – back story of Daryl and Allison.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer – I don't own TWD only Allison and other OC's I may imagine along the way.

Note – special mention to AquaRoseWaters; GawkyTC; chelsnichole12. Thanks for the reviews guys, continue to let me know what you think!

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Allison POV

I woke up with the distinct feeling that someone was watching me, I rolled over and was met with the striking blue eyes of Merle that were so familiar to me but I couldn't think where from. "You know it's rude to stare?" I asked slightly irritated

"Tryin ta decide if ya real or not" Merle answered inquisitively.

"What do you mean by that?" I thought overnight the drugs would clear his system and I could get to know the rational version of the surly man.

"Bin thinking" I snorted at that which earned me a glare but I nodded at him to continue. "How the hell did a tiny thing like ya get left here to look after ol' Merle?" I was about to answer him when I realised he wasn't finished. "Ya walk up here like it's nothing. You go back into the store crawlin' with geeks like they're regular people" Interesting Merle off drugs seemed quite a logical thinker, who knew.

"I'm immune." I answered simply, since stuttering Glen I'd decided the shortest explanation might be the easiest to digest for people.

"What's the plan for today than Angel?" Merle asked, I smiled it was too early in the morning for a thousand questions that I probably didn't have all the answers to.

"Well I think that my brother will try and make it back here within the next couple of hours, so I'm going to get the store sorted ready then I'll bring up some things to keep us entertained, how's that?" I asked, not really giving Merle much room for argument.

"I can think of something ta keep us entertained" Merle winked at me suggestively. I rolled my eyes and started getting sorted. I made sure to position the gazebo entrance so that when the group made it through the door we could see them.

"Right, I'll be back soon. You stay right here" I said condescendingly knowing how Merle's lack of movement would be an annoyance for him.

"You just wait till my brother Daryl gets here, get him to sort ya out for ya cheek little girl" with the name Daryl it suddenly all clicked; the eyes; the snarky attitude; being a redneck. For someone with an IQ of 195 you'd have thought I would have caught on quicker.

"Daryl Dixon" I breathed out loud.

* * *

5 years earlier

It has been a long day, I only have one more appointment and then I'm finally done for the day. Dr Andrews had approved my first solo medical study and I almost had my twenty research participants or Guinea pigs as I like to think of them. I had decided to research anti-body responses to biological attacks. For my project I had to give my test subjects a virus and attempt different processes to cure it. It sounded dangerous on paper but in order to reduce risks the participants were screened extensively and the virus was something that could be thought off easily. All the participants had to sign waivers saying they wouldn't sue me if something went wrong and I had to pay out a large sum in medical insurance in case someone still tried. They were also paid for their time, but the university covered that expense. It had been such a long day due to having to screen over two hundred people for a study of only twenty, offer money and you get all sorts trying to get involved. I heard the knock of the door for my last interviewee.

"Sorry thin' I got tha wrong room. Lookin' for a Dr Grimes, can ya help me?" I'd been hearing this all day as soon as someone saw how young I was they didn't believe I was Dr Grimes, although the Doctor title was new having just completed my first degree, I still insisted on it being used, just to try to assert to the other students on the course here that I was serious about my qualifications, others were offended by me considering I had just turned 15 and the next youngest on the course was 25. I looked up to meet the eyes of my last interviewee and gasped, really wishing I was 25 right now. His eyes were mesmerising, blue with little flecks of green, he looked a bit scruffy but I just found that endearing. He must have thought I'd gone crazy, "Sorry are ya sick, do you need me ta get a doctor for ya?" He asked, it wasn't a bad assumption we were in a medical training hospital.

"Sorry, you startled me" I tried to recover some of my dignity "I'm Doctor Grimes" I stood up shaking his hand making sure my name badge was angled so he would see and believe me. As our hands touched I felt a small static shock and a tingle through my body.

"Oh I'm sorry, ya not what I expected" He murmured a small blush making its way across his checks, I wondered what had caused that he didn't seem the type to get embarrassed easily. I thought his blush was cute, but I'd never say that out loud. I'd only ever had a crush once before and that was when I was seven; I'd already been skipped to tenth grade, Charlie was sixteen; had the nicest smile, and dimples. He was nice to me when the other girls had laughed at me for being a little girl surrounded by girls on the cusp of womanhood. The niceness had ended when he got called on for an answer in class; got it wrong; and I was asked to tell the class the correct answer. Being naïve I'd immediately answered with the correct answer, the teacher beamed at me and smiled telling Charlie he could learn something from me, I received the meanest glare I could remember and burst into tears right in the middle of the class with everyone laughing at me. My parents had been called in and that was when the arguments had started about sending me to a specialist school. But now standing across from Daryl I immediately felt the stirrings of a crush, I was slightly disappointed ethically I shouldn't involve him in the study now, but I decided I needed to know more about him so asked him to sit down.

After the initial health questions I began to notice more and more about Daryl that intrigued me. He wasn't your typical redneck, he seemed quite intelligent. I noted that he was 28; thirteen years older than me, it wasn't a huge age gap; however relatively speaking being fifteen made such an age gap socially unacceptable at the moment, I tried to shake my head to stop my train of thought, there was no chance that this man would ever consider me. I drew some of his blood to have a quick look under the scope, hoping there was something I could use to rule him out medically so I wouldn't have to explain the real reason I couldn't have him in the study. As soon as I looked at his blood I knew there was no way I could let Daryl walk out the door. There was something very interesting just from the initial look. I smiled at Daryl and let him know he would be in my research group there and then, thinking to myself I'd just have to control my teenage hormones. The paperwork was signed and I started to pack up for the day. We separated at the door letting Daryl know I'd see him soon.

It was dark when I left the building to walk to the apartment I had rented a ten minute walk from North Shore University hospital. I was checking the messages on my phone laughing at a text from my brother about some idiot he'd arrested today, when I was shoved hard from behind. My phone went flying into the darkness that surrounded me, I heard giggles from behind. I recognised that giggle, it was Elizabeth Oates a girl whose rich daddy had paid to get her on the course, hoping that she'd meet a doctor who would take his beauty queen reject daughter off his hands. The girl hated me for some unknown reason, I was no competition for her, she was here to entice a husband not compete with me for the top grades so I never understood her issue. I looked around and realised she wasn't alone. She had her current victim with her, Lance Jones, who was second in our class; a full grade behind me. I began to piece together the issue quickly and tried to stand up, just as I was about to Lance kicked me hard in the stomach. I feel back to the ground and curled into myself, hoping to protect myself from further attacks, my brother had taught me some basic self-defence but in this current situation all that training was useless I needed to get to my feet.

"Think you're better than me, you snot nosed little brat" Lance snarled at me whilst he continued his assault. I began to wonder how Lance could even be second in the class with the way he was reacting to me, second in a class of seventy was nothing to sniff at, maybe it was an insult to his manhood that a fifteen year old was beating him. Being the top of the class I got best pick of surgeries; the best rounds; the most praise from the professors. If he had just talked to me and got to know me, he would know that my passion was in research so soon I wouldn't be competing with him for those surgery spots.

Lance was still kicking me, I heard a snap knowing that something was broken but the pain was everywhere so I couldn't tell which bone had cracked. I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness when I heard yelling. I felt gentle arms left me up bridal style and the same tingling feeling I got earlier – Daryl. "It's ok, I'm here, stay with me" He spoke to me calmly as he carried me back towards the hospital. I really tried but the safer I felt the more I drifted off.

When I woke again it must have been several hours later the sunlight was streaming through my room, I was hooked up to various machines, the beeping of the heart monitor increasing as my panic rose. I tried looking round the room and noticed a sleeping Daryl on the chair next to the window, the room was covered in flowers, which worried me, how long have I been asleep. "Only two days" a gentle voice answered, I must have said it out loud as it was Daryl that had answered, probably woken by the louder beeping coming from the monitors.

"What happened?" I asked unsure of the events that had taken place, they played in my mind like some weird dream but I wasn't sure how much was real.

"How much do you remember?" He asked, that was what we were trained to do for trauma patients, get them to recount memories rather than telling them the facts themselves, he must have either experience in this or someone had given him instructions for when I awoke.

"Lance, he attacked me. I know something is broken" I answered, hoping my rescuer would fill in the gaps.

"Yeah. Douche bag has been arrested. They wouldn't tell me much as I'm not kin. Ya brother has been calling but can't get here till tomorra so I said I'd stay in case ya woke." I was sad Rick wasn't here for me to wake up to but it was a long journey between New York and Georgia, I only did the trip twice a year and I hated it, 14 hours cooped on a bus with crying children and smelly old men, my brother and I hated to fly and Rick would never let me drive all that way on my own. I felt giddy at the fact Daryl had stayed with me. "I can't stay ta meet him gotta head back home for a couple a week's my brother decided to get himself arrested again" He'd mentioned his brother in his family history, I could tell he loved him dearly despite his brother's lack of regard for law and society rules.

"Thankyou" I paused, those words having so much meaning then just thanks for the information. "Could you pass me my chart, it should be in the holder at the end of the bed" He dutifully did as instructed. To untrained people medical charts look like a load of squiggles, right now I was wishing I didn't know how to read it. I had two broken bones one in my arm which wasn't too bad and would heal in a couple of weeks, the other was my leg; the break was bad and would need surgery to correct if I was ever going to get full mobility back. My ribs were bruised and they were slightly concerned about a blow to my head which would be assessed once I was awake. I had lacerations and bruises covering 80% of my body and had lost a lot of blood during the attack from a knife wound to my other leg, I knew from the description that if I had gotten any further from the hospital I wouldn't have made it. I must have been blacked out for that, I don't remember him having a knife, I needed to ask more about that. I made a note that my attending physician was Dr Roberts, my mentor. This must be hard for him, since I'd come here just over a year ago he'd taken me under his wing and treat me like a daughter sometimes. I was already looking forward to the ethical debate I would have with him about him being my doctor. "Are you ok?" He looked at me like I was crazy for even asking him, considering the position I was in. I rolled my eyes and continued, "It says he stabbed me, you weren't' hurt were you?" I asked very concerned for him.

"Don't ya worry about me love," My heart fluttered a bit when he called me that and I was betrayed by the heart monitor, he looked at it wearily before continuing, "I've been in worse scraps. You just concentrate on getting better so you can do your research thing and pay me" he smiled showing that was not all he cared about but I let him use it as a cover anyway. I hoped I would still be able to continue my research project. With injuries like these I wouldn't be operating or assisting with rounds for a while so the project would be the only thing I would be capable of doing. Before we could converse anymore I heard the unmistakeable sound of Dr Roberts' cane approaching.

"How's our patient today?" He asked Daryl before glancing at me, when he saw I was awake I've never seen him smile so big. "Oh Allison, I'm so glad to see those big blue eyes of yours" he spoke fondly. I smiled at him.

"Nice to see you too Doctor Roberts, now when can I get out of here?" I asked with a sense of urgency.

"True, what they say, Doctors do make the worst patients." Dr Roberts said with a smile still on his face. "Got a few more tests to run, as I'm sure you can see from your chart" he answered gesturing to the metal chart still held in my hands. "Your surgery is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon so your brother should arrive a couple of hours before that." He chuckled to himself, "made the mistake of giving him my private cell number he's been ringing nearly every …." Dr Roberts was interrupted by the sound of my lab song coming from his cell _'_ _Numb'_ by Linkin Park. "Oh speak of the devil" he said before answering. I was heart warmed by the fact he must have remembered the song I had on in the lab on constant loop to keep me motivated, he'd commented it just sounded like white noise at the time. "Hello Richard" He answered his cell, he always made me giggle when he refused to use shortened versions of anyone's name. "Why yes big change, one moment I'll pass you on." He looked at me expectantly and passed me the phone.

"Hey BB" I breathed out using our nickname

"Oh Allie-Cat. I'm so pleased you're awake. I'm sorry I'm not there yet, I'm going to take a flight tomorrow." I was shocked ever since 9/11 Rick had refused to get on a plane especially to New York, it wasn't a complete irrational fear, Rick had won a trip to LA through the sheriffs' departments charity gala, the flights he would have taken were to Boston then onto LA. His connecting flight was one of the hijacked planes. Rick had postponed and subsequently never taken the trip due to Carl getting a really bad case of measles. It sometimes makes me sick about how close I came to losing him, so for Rick to get on a plane for me both filled me with love and fear. "How are you feeling? Have the police interviewed you yet?" My brother returned to cop mode quickly it seemed.

"I'm in a lot of pain at the moment; Doctor Roberts was just telling me about the surgery tomorrow. My rescuer has been keeping an eye on me, but no police so far." I said giving Rick as much information as possible.

"Ok Allie-Cat I will see you tomorrow, can you pass me to the man that saved you please." I was confused as to why he didn't ask for Daryl by name but just left it for now. I passed the phone to Daryl and he got up and left the room, probably embarrassed to be heard having a conversation with my brother.

"Right, whilst your knight in shining armour is out the room let's have a look how everything's healing shall we." Dr Roberts checked my head injury asking me several questions to check for any brain damage or concussion as he inspected my other injuries. I saw the look of worry come over his face when he looked at my leg especially when I had no feeling past my knee. I knock came at the door and Dr Roberts left for a couple of minutes. When he returned he looked very concerned. "We need to move the surgery to today Allison" Dr Roberts said with a note of trepidation. I knew something must be wrong if he's going to do that. "I'll go get everything set up, the police are here to talk to you right now so I'll let them come in." I wondered why he'd waited until now to let me know about the police being in the building, he must be trying to distract me.

Dr Roberts left the room and two officers entered one was a man who immediately reminded me of Shane, whilst the other was a woman obviously there in case anything more than a beating had happened. I'd seem them around the hospital a couple of times in the emergency department, they must have this hospital as their specific area. "Good Morning Allison pleased to see you're awake. I'm Officer Daniels, this is Officer McDaid" The male officer greeted; being around Shane a lot growing up I recognised the condescending tone of his voice and I immediately felt on edge. Due to my age and gender I doubt this man would ever take me seriously.

"It's Dr Grimes, Officer Daniels, It's good to be awake; now what is happening with the investigation?" I made sure to sound confident when I spoke as not to give him any way to intimidate me.

"A Lance Jones is in custody, however, a reliable witness claims the attacker was the man sitting with you the past two days. We're just here to get your statements so that poor Lance can be released and Daryl Dixon can be taken in for processing." I nearly choked; how could they even think that? I started to panic wondering if that's why Daryl hadn't come back into the room yet. Had they already arrested him? Was he thinking I would say it was him to avoid the backlash at school? I could hear the heart monitor going crazy and knew I needed to calm down.

"If by reliable witness you mean Elizabeth Oates, she's screwing the guy so she's about as reliable as an umbrella during a hurricane." I paused for a second quite pleased with my metaphor. "Daryl saved me, Lance started attacking me because he's not happy that a 15 year old is beating him in class, have you even checked the CCTV yet, it happened in the parking lot." I noticed the officers looked slightly embarrassed about this, obviously they hadn't done their jobs properly it was easier to blame the redneck over the medical student.

"I will leave Office McDaid with you to collect your statement." Officer Daniels stuttered out quickly before leaving the room. I completed my statement as quickly as possible making sure that the Officer knew if it wasn't for Daryl I don't think I would be able to be sitting here talking right now. The Officer smiled at me reassuringly throughout my whole statement; I liked her a lot better than Officer Daniels

"Where's Daryl?" I asked once the statement was completed.

"My colleague went to get him released from the hospital custody room, he may still be in trouble he tried to punch one of the arresting Officers" she said sympathetically.

"Of course he did, how would you feel if you were being arrested for saving someone?" I asked rhetorically. Before she could reply an angry looking Daryl re-entered the room. If it was possible I swear you could see the steam coming off his head. Our eyes met and he immediately seemed to calm down.

"I'll leave you now Dr Grimes, I hope for a speedy recovery for you" Officer McDaid nodded to Daryl and then left the room. Daryl didn't speak for the longest time; I was worried he was angry at me for some of what had transpired the past few days.

"Are you OK?" He laughed at me

"That's the second time ya have asked that and you're the one layin' in a hospital bed" he gawked at me the sudden tension in the room dissolving. We didn't get to talk much more, Dr Roberts returned to wheel me into surgery and Daryl said goodbye obviously planning on leaving to spend time with his brother before he was sent down.

* * *

4 years ago

My conclusion was done, all the research labelled and added into a clear presentation. I grinned like a Cheshire cat I was so pleased. Thankfully the hospital board had granted me the extension so I could delay the start of my research project; but me being me I still finished it before the original deadline. I looked at the time and realised I was running late for my 'date', it wasn't really a date; I just liked to call it that in my head. Since my attack Daryl has been meeting me for coffee every two weeks to get an update on how my project was going. Once my leg was fully healed, for which I was told was a miracle in itself, Daryl started teaching me self-defence. He was quite pleased I knew the basics but he taught me so much in the last six months that if anyone tried to attack me again it would be them going to the hospital. Last weekend he had taken me hunting, showed me how to use a crossbow and taught me how to track a little, things had gotten a bit awkward at one point when I'd tripped and he'd landed on top of me, I thought for the tiniest moment he might kiss me. I'd turned sixteen just over five months ago so my mind was constantly wondering if he would consider dating me to see if this connection we shared could go anywhere.

I arrived at Starbucks just in time but Daryl wasn't here, that wasn't like him. He was always here before me no matter how early I tried to be. I waited an hour before I gave up thinking something must have come up, Daryl said he repelled all technology so he never used a cell phone so I'd have to go over to the apartment he rented in the city to see if he was ok. It was a tiny apartment on a dodgy side of town. As I crossed the street I saw something that made me laugh. Cleaning one of the tables outside of McDonalds was Elisabeth Oates, after the attack she along with Lance had been kicked off the course; the court case had been quick thankfully with Lance pleading guilty so I didn't have to testify; he got ten years. Elisabeth narrowly avoided prison for giving a false statement, but due to her daddy's money her lawyer managed to clear that, last I heard she was knocked up and wasn't sure if it was Lance's or the lawyers I assume it must have been Lance's if she's now working at McDonalds. Thankfully Elisabeth didn't see me, but I was even more motivated to see Daryl, he'd get a laugh out of her misfortune, not that working in McDonalds was a bad thing but for Elisabeth it must have been a fate she never imagined for herself.

I knocked on the door to Daryl's apartment and was greeted by Shona a lovely black lady in her late sixties who was Daryl's landlady. "Oh sorry hunni, Daryl's gone"

"What do you mean gone?" I asked worriedly

"He left last night, gave me his notice and packed up, seemed to be in a hurry too" She said obviously correctly guessing I didn't know. I felt my eyes well up with tears. He'd left not said goodbye and that was that. I just nodded at Shona and ran back down the street. I heard her shouting my name but I couldn't stop, it felt like I'd been stabbed in the chest it hurt so badly. Daryl had been my rock for the last year; my best-friend and confidant. I don't think even Rick knew me as well as Daryl.

* * *

With Daryl's departure I through myself even further into my studies. The presentation of my research project was met with thunderous applause. I had to stop myself from crying when I showed test subject 8's results which was Daryl. His blood had very unique properties, he was immune to several of the more deadly virus' out there and his blood seemed to adapt to various pathogens that were added to his sample. Extracting his antibodies I'd developed a vaccine for one of the more common types of flu, when I had told Daryl that his blood had helped add to the list of flu strains that now had a vaccine he'd flushed proud like a peacock, I remember smacking him on the back of the head to stop his ego inflating any more. A couple of my other test subjects had interesting blood but none more so than Daryl.

After my presentation was complete I said goodbye to New York and headed home for the summer, Rick was insisting I go to a high school prom with Shane's cousin, like that would be any fun. After the summer I'd be heading to John Hopkins in Maryland, leaving behind memories of the attack, and of Daryl.

* * *

Present

"Ya know me brother?" Merle asked me pulling me out of my reminiscing.

"You could say that," I said with a smile, "did he ever mention saving a medical student five years ago?" I asked him hoping beyond hope that I was important enough to Daryl to mention me to his brother.

"You're Allie?" He said almost in reverence, his tone shocked me, Daryl must have mentioned me a lot. "Oh the beatin' he gave me for not passin' on tha' letta." Before I could ask what letter he continued. "Oh Allie, I thin' I luv ya, but I'm not good enuf for ya, gonna get a good job an' come back for ya." Merle recounted in a sickly sweet voice obviously not as happy about his brother's declaration as I now was. It felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest. Merle could see the smile on my face, "Where'd ya go, he came back lookin' for ya and Hospital wouldn't say where ya'd gone." He asked, obviously being the good brother and checking out my back story for his brother's benefit.

"I moved to Maryland, my research project won me a grant to study there for free at John Hopkins." His eyes went wide, everyone knew John Hopkins was one of the best medical research schools in the country. "I had no way of getting in touch with Daryl, I thought he left me behind and forgot about me." I muttered sadly.

Two hours later the shop was secured, I gathered a few things together to pass the time with Merle. He talked me into playing poker probably thinking I'd be no good, but it was one of the things Daryl taught me, which he quickly realised when I won the first hand. Because we had nothing to play for we decided to play for stories, if I won, he'd have to tell me a story about Daryl, if he won, I had to tell him about the Daryl I knew. We'd been playing for four hands when a suddenly noticed my brother come through the door, next to him he had Glenn and just to the left of him stood Daryl. I saw Daryl mouth Allie, with that everything came flooding back, all the happy times we'd shared, the lingering glances him holding me as he instructed me how to fire the bolt out of a crossbow. I jumped up nearly knocking the table over raced up to Daryl, jumped into his arms and kissed him like he was the last man on earth. As first kisses go it was epic, the amount of love pouring from both of us could make a blind man see it. It felt like we were the only two people in the world. As I separated from him after nearly forgetting to breathe I was met by the cocky grin of Merle, the shocked expression of Glenn and the furious face of my brother.

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Hope you like it remember to review it only takes a minute. Coming up Daryl point of view and a look at what is happening at the quarry. Just remembered how to add horizontal lines added to hopefully make the story easier to read.


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks again for the reviews, favourites and follows so far. Please keep them coming

* * *

Daryl POV

My whole body was tingling I finally had Allie in my arms; never thought it would take the end of the world for this to happen. Meeting her five years ago I knew our relationship was wrong my bright eyed girl was only 15 no way should she be with a guy over a decade older than her. Little Allie always had a way of getting to me, no matter how hard I fought the feelings I had for her the more she seemed to push back in. The final straw came during the last hunting trip when I looked in her eyes after that tumble and saw the love shining through, no one had ever looked at me like that. I had to get away for her sake and for mine, I was no good to her as I was, staying in that crappy apartment that was funded by money she paid to me for the medical study she was doing. I had to be the one to support her not the other way around. So I put my feelers out and took a job on a rig that would pay out loads, the one drawback is I'd be gone for over six months. I wrote Allie a letter letting her know how to contact me as well as finally confessing that I did have feelings for her, hoping that she would wait for me. Every day I waited for a letter to come to the address I'd supplied and nothing happened. I thought she'd given up on me, it was only when I returned that I'd learnt Merle had got his hand on the letter I'd left with Shona after my poor little Allie had fled from the apartment and seen fit to read it and then destroy it claiming he wasn't going to let his brother 'be whipped by no pussy'. I tried to find her but the University refused to give me any of her information claiming data protection; load of crap if you asked me. I had to be dragged out by security. I finally caught a break when a neighbour showed me how to use _Facebook_. I didn't think Allie would use that site she was never one for socialising in person let alone online. My friend found her page and there was a picture of her dressed in a prom dress with a young lad standing proudly beside her. It said how in love they were and planning their future together. I knew then I had to get over Allie, but she was always on my mind.

When I first stepped onto the roof and saw a more mature version of the girl I once knew I thought I was dreaming I felt my lips moving uttering her name then all of a sudden the little ball of energy flew into my arms and kissed me like her life depended on it, I kissed her back, pouring everything I had into that kiss. If this was just a onetime thing for having not seen me in a long time and the state of the world at the moment, I was going to make the most of it. It felt like the world had disappeared when I was kissing Allie; I could hear noises but couldn't distinguish any sounds. Finally she pulled apart from me, her eyes shining with the love that I saw all those years ago, I still held her in my arms afraid if I let go she would disappear as she scanned the faces surrounding us. I saw over her shoulder Merle smirking to the side of me Glenn looked shocked, but when I met Rick's furious eyes I knew I was in trouble. It was like one of those cartoon bulls preparing to charge, I swear you could see the steam coming out of his nostrils.

"Hey BB. Do you remember me telling you about my guardian angel back in Uni?" my sweet little Allie asked her brother, probably hoping to calm him down. I felt all the air leave my body relaxing when Rick realised all I'd done for his sister back then.

"Please, don't do that in front of me again. Let's get out of here and back to camp. They had a walker there today don't want to be gone too long." He replied pinching the bridge of his nose in a way to relieve tension in his head.

As Rick and Glenn went to free my brother and gather the stuff off the roof I looked at Allie trying to convey all the thoughts in my head with a look. She must have seen the questions running through my mind. I remembered all Rick had told us in the van on the way to the city about his sister's immunity. I felt proud to know her, she was going to save the World. When this all started happening my first thoughts were not of my brother but of Allie; whenever I saw pictures of hospitals on the news I worried that maybe she was in one of them, trying to find an answer to all this, she was smart enough to. I remember when she used to show me all the data from her medical research, I would smile at her and pretend I understood. Her whole face would light up when she talked about her research and all the discoveries she was making. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that she could find an answer even without her new found abilities. Allie put a finger to my lips before I could utter any words to her.

"We have a lot to talk about, but not her, just for now." She kissed me again. "I love you" She stared into my eyes trying to show how truthful she was.

I kissed her again but struggled to say it back, so I went with something she would understand, "Ditto" she beamed at me, she'd made me watch _Ghost_ with her one weekend when it poured with rain. She'd told me then that it was beautiful how the lead characters didn't have to say I love you all the time to each other and the word ditto was the male's unique way of saying it without getting all mushy.

"Yo. Lovebirds. Time to go" Glenn hollered at us.

"The van is all packed downstairs, have you picked up my ambulance yet BB?" Allie went back to what she probably did best, being bossy. I couldn't wipe the grin off my face and received an elbow to the ribs from my brother.

"I would say don't be fallin' for no pussy lil' brother, but I like Angel so I'm gonna change that an' say. Don't screw this up." I decided then that I must be dreaming, and started to pinch myself. Merle noticed and began laughing his head off. "No dream lil' brother. Come on before they leave me on a roof again"

We followed the group down the stairs it was decided that we would all squeeze into the van that Allie had filled, as it wasn't save to walk around the city, well for most of us anyway. We would drive to the other van we had brought and split up. I wasn't happy about the next part, Rick and Allie were going with the empty van to drive to where they left the ambulance whilst I, Merle and Glenn were driving back to camp. I didn't want to leave Allie so soon after being reunited. Rick could see it on my face and gave me a harsh glare. Allie came over to reassure me with a hug and a kiss before leaving me again with her brother.

As we left the city I knew Merle wouldn't stay quiet for long, "So when's the weddin'?"

* * *

Shane's POV

There had been no more walker sightings around camp since that lone one this morning, slowly I felt the mood in camp relaxing. I had just finished patrol when Carl came running up to me asking if I would take him frog fishing today like I promised. Lori came over smiling at me and kissed me lightly. It felt so good to be together properly. After she'd finished crying last night we had a long discussion about what we both wanted and decided a fresh start was in order, we were going to try dating. It sounds so crazy giving the state of things but I suppose it makes sense, most of Lori's feelings for me were down to her grief at losing Rick so now that he had returned she was still a little confused about some of the feelings she had. I was so humbled and grateful to Rick for letting her go, we had a private conversation before he left camp to get Allison and I knew things wouldn't be the same as they were before but we had to be on good terms for Carl's sake. The little boy who had become my reason for surviving in this reality beamed at me as we headed down to the quarry lake. There was a group of the women doing laundry, Lori went to join them. I felt bad it was often left to the women to do things like laundry, if my ma was here she'd whack me on the back of the head, start yelling in Italian, and tell me my great-great grandmother didn't burn her undergarments just for women to go back to their gender roles again.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when a tussle broke out between Ed and Andrea with poor Carol pleading for both of them to stop. I ran over to intervene and T-Dog had beaten me to it. T-Dog pulled Ed away from the women and smacked him real hard, sending Ed flying into his beer bottles that he had next to his deck chair. The sound of broken glass told me things were going to get messy. A bleeding Ed got up ready to charge T-Dog so I took him down. After Ed stopped struggling a hysterical Carol ran to comfort her husband, I'd seen it many times in abuse victims; they kept going back to the abuser. I hoped Carol wouldn't end up like the case I had of Amy Franklin, the last call I had to check out a domestic disturbance at her place was to find her eight month pregnant body along with the body of their two year old who was named Alice. Little Alice reminded me so much of Allison as a baby; bright eyed always staring at me trying to figure out who I was. That case nearly crushed me and I had to take some leave from the force, pending a psych evaluation. I'd just returned when not two weeks later Rick was shot.

"Thank you." Lori said to me giving me a hug. I few eyebrows were raised by the group around us, not yet aware of the change in relationship status of Rick and Lori. I nodded and followed after T-Dog and Carol as the former carried an unconscious Ed back into camp.

"Shane, we have a problem" Dale greeted me as I approached the RV. I liked Dale he was a bit of a busybody but they always came in useful especially at a camp like this. I pointed me in the direction of the hill were I saw Jim, one of the few people who had arrived on his own at the camp; the majority of the group was made up of families who had survived together, people like Jim, Dale, T-Dog and Glenn were the only ones who didn't have any other familiar connections within the group.

"Hey Jim, what ya doing" I said as I cautiously approached him. He looked like he'd got heat stroke, his face was bright red, and he was sweating and muttering to himself not even noticing my presence. "Jim, man, I need you to put the shovel down and come talk about this. The sun's affecting you man." I tried to coax him out. He seemed crazed.

"Got ta keep digging. But don't need as many now. Why don't I need as many? Angel gonna save the world. Yeah Angel gonna come down from heaven. Safe the world. But not Jim. But Jim don't need one of these. Jim gonna walk. And walk. And walk." Jim's rambling was starting to worry me.

Thankfully Dale and T-Dog approached and helped me get him out of the grave and calmed down. I thought for a moment he was going to hit me with the shovel. As I looked around at the scene I noticed that Jim had dug four graves.

* * *

Amy and Andrea had just taken the boat out when I heard the rumbling of a vehicle heading on the track towards camp. Some of the others who heard gave a cheer as Glenn, Merle and Daryl emerged from the cab of the van. "Supplies people" Glenn hollered opening up the back of the van. Inside the van it was like a department store had been piled inside. I knew that this was all Allison's work and I was so proud of her. We might not always get along but she was like a sister to me, a very annoying too smart for her own good, bratty sister. The energy in camp at seeing the supplies was electric.

"Where are Rick and Allison?" I heard Lori ask, still anxious to see her husband and adopted daughter. I felt a small twinge on guilt about my role in the separation but tried to force it down.

"They went for that ambulance Rick mentioned. Sounds like Allie emptied a hospital as well as a department store" Daryl answered. My head snapped up at him calling Allison, Allie, no one calls her that. She'd told Rick he was only just allowed to call her Allie-Cat but never Allie after she'd fallen for this guy at University that saved her when she was attacked and he'd broken her heart by leaving without a trace. I and Rick had wanted to track down the guy but we'd never gotten a name out of her.

Just as I was about to question Daryl for his name choice I heard the sound of another vehicle approaching, not as big as the first. It came to a stop behind the van and Allison and Rick climbed out. "Auntie Allie" Carl yelled running away from his mum and straight into Allison's arms, tears running down both their faces. Lori went over too and hugged Allison, Rick must have told Allison about their split as the hug was very one sided from Lori. Lori looked a little hurt but kept smiling as not to cause a scene.

"Hi everyone. I'm Allison Grimes. I'm immune. I'm also a doctor of Immunology. Once we've got the supplies given out and everyone's settled, I want to have a blood sample from everyone. We are going to find the cure for this thing" At Allison's bold statement everyone started cheering and going over to greet and hug her. I hadn't felt this much happiness since before the world ended. It felt good, it felt like hope. And it was all because of the Brainiac child who I used to bully. I was beaming like everyone else until Allison came over and slapped me.

* * *

Allison POV

Seeing the look of longing in Daryl's eyes I felt it so hard to part from him again even if it was just for a short while. I knew we had lots to talk about and even though that kiss and the declarations of love had happened, him saying ditto being so perfect. I knew that we had to have that talk before progressing any further in our relationship. However, there was so much to do and it felt like I didn't even have time to breathe. Rick dragged me out of my near mental breakdown to tell me what had happened since we had separated last night. I was overjoyed when he told me he found Lori, Carl and Shane, however, betrayed and heartbroken when he told me that Lori had become involved with Shane and that he had let them be together. I questioned Rick on why he didn't fight to save his marriage, Lori was more like a mother to me than a sister in law. He told me that the rules of the World had changed. That even though he loved Lori, he loved the Lori before all this happened and he could tell from looking at her in those few hours after being at camp that she wasn't the same anymore. I understood that, when Rick had first woken up he seemed childlike in his outlook of this new world. It was like a restart and we were all shells of our former self. That brought me back to thoughts of Daryl, what if we'd changed so much that what we had all those years ago now had no meaning. Thoughts kept swirling in my head but all I could seem to focus on was our kiss.

"So, Daryl Dixon is Wings" my brother decided to change direction of the conversation. He was smirking at me so I knew things weren't too bad and he remembered the good things I'd told him about the man that had rescued me, taught me, and been my best friend for over a year back in time at North Shore. I'd never told Rick Daryl's name. I got worried that he'd do a police check on him and find out how old he was and stop me from hanging out with the much too old for me redneck, so I'd come up with the name Wings in reference to the leather jacket he owned with a pair of angels wings on the back. Rick didn't know but when I'd turned 18 I'd got a tattoo at the top of my thigh just below my hip that was a pair of wings with a letter D in each wing, it wasn't very big about the size of my hand and could only be seen by others if I was wearing underwear, bathing suit or really short shorts. I made a point never to be around my brother in any situation he could spot it. Lori knew I had it but not what it meant as she'd seen it when we went to the spa a couple of months before Rick was shot. A gift from her for graduating with my final degree. She'd scolded me a little but kept my secret. I wondered what Daryl would think when I showed him, suddenly feeling a blush coming across my cheeks.

I laughed, "Yes. And before you get all. He's too old for you and statutory rape on me, you should know that was our first every kiss." I finally muttered under my breath, "My first ever kiss" Rick looked at me shocked. Obviously assuming that being twenty I would have had a kiss already.

"I thought Shane's cousin was your first… well you know." Rick suddenly looked embarrassed. "Are you telling me that I punched Jack Walsh for no reason?"

I looked at my brother confused. I remembered Jack had a black eye and had come to apologise to me about four months after he had taken me to prom telling me he'd made a Facebook page up for me. The page read like we were in a relationship, I was so angry at the time thinking that maybe Daryl might have seen it and that's why I hadn't heard from him, but I'd come to my senses quickly and remembered he didn't even know how to turn on a computer let alone find someone on Facebook. I'd once told him his new name should be Dereck Zoolander. When he quizzed me on why I'd played him the movie and made him pay attention to the scene where he and Hansel had tried to use a computer, I'd received a very vigorous tickle attack for that. "Why would you punch him, all he did was make up a Facebook page with my name?"

"Well, he, err." My brother didn't stutter something was up. I gave him a glance and he continued, "He was telling everyone how you two went to the hotel together." He said trying to get me to reach the conclusion that he had all those years ago.

"Oh my god. If he wasn't already dead I would kill him myself!" I almost screamed. I'd found Jack when I'd taken a walk outside the hospital to find a vehicle to get ready to load up. I made a mental note to tell Shane about his cousin when I did see him and had to resist driving back to King County to kick his body in the balls.

Rick took on a sombre look, the realisation again hitting him that nearly everyone we did know was dead or one of the walking dead. "When we get to the ambulance we might as well leave this van, the fuel gage is nearly out and there's no point wasting time trying to fill it up." I instructed my brother trying to distract him from his morose thoughts.

"I had thought of other plans, do you want to head to the CDC?" my brother asked trying to plan ahead as always.

"I'm hoping Dr Jenner is alive, she's the lead in the field of immunology, I tried all the channels I could think of to reach her at the CDC when I was at the hospital looking after you but I didn't get anything in return. I think I got a fax through with the analysis of my blood before the generators packed in at the hospital. When we get to camp I want to get a blood test from everyone, the more data I can gather the better. I should have taken samples from Morgan and Duane but I was distracted." I added shamefully.

"I know you feel a lot of pressure right now, I know you think it's your job to save the World Allie-Cat. But, please. Make sure you don't do it at the expense of yourself." My brother added his reassurance. I knew it was going to be a difficult road. The only other live person's blood I had a sample of so far was Rick's and there was something weird about it. His blood wasn't like mine but it seemed that his blood had something extra in it that I couldn't identify yet sort of like a rhesus factor. I would need to gather as many other samples as possible to see if there was a link. I didn't respond to my brothers concerns for me, he would only argue back with me and we'd be going round in circles for hours. We finally arrived at the ambulance and luckily no zombies were around and the hiding spot hadn't been discovered.

Driving into the quarry I could see all the people gathered round the supply van obviously pleased with the haul of goods I had collected. I gave everyone the speech I had prepared in my head all those years of presentations to older peers having prepared me to address a crowd. I saw Daryl out the corner of my eye smiling at me but my attention was drawn to Shane. Before I could stop myself I went up to him and slapped him as hard as I could across the face, for all the things he had done to my brother. Before Shane could even retaliate or yell at me I hugged him and he relaxed knowing that the fight was over before it started.

"I love you like a brother Shane, Thank you for keeping them safe. But you hurt our brother so this is the last hug you're getting until I forgive you. But I promise that will be the only slap you'll receive." I paused letting him relax. "For that indiscretion." Letting him know that if he did something else wrong down the line I would slap him again.

* * *

I was so exhausted. I'd finished the last sample and my head was spinning, I remembered I hadn't eaten since this morning when I'd made myself and Merle some soup on the little camp stove I'd found. It was getting late now not dark enough yet for flashlights but within the next hour we would need them to get around camp. My eyes were getting blurry and the discovery I had just made had my stomach turning in knots. Before I could go anywhere I heard a knock at the ambulance door.

"Don't you want my sample?" Daryl asked me, I'd completely forgotten that he hadn't been to see me yet.

"I'm sorry take a seat. Just like old times" I smiled. He must have noticed I was lagging.

"You get ready I'll be back in two." Before I could stop him to say I was already ready he left out the ambulance. He was back very quickly carrying a very nice smelling plate of fish.

"Oh I'll love you forever if that's for me!" I exclaimed

"You betta love me forever anyway Allie" Daryl told me sternly but with a cocky smile.

"I know we need to have a long conversation Daryl but there's just so much to do at the moment. I feel like if I concentrate on us I'm going to let people down. Can you wait just a little bit longer?" I asked hopefully.

Daryl kissed me on the lips softly, "I've waited for you for five years Allie, I can wait a little longer as long as I get ta see ya face every day." I kissed Daryl again and took his sample of blood. I only had a few needles and blood containers left so would now have to save the supplies until I could restock and only use what I had left if I saw something that warranted another sample be taken. Daryl left the ambulance and I looked at his sample under the small scope I had. Again Daryl's blood was different. It was different to the rest of the groups and it was different to mine. I wondered if my blood was like his before I was scratched. I wouldn't risk testing that hypothesis yet though, hopefully at the CDC I could use VI to do a simulation based on my theories. I weighed the pros and cons of sharing some of my findings with the group and decided it was important that they know. If I kept a secret now I wouldn't have their trust later when it would be needed more than anything.

I headed towards the main camp where nearly everyone was resting, talking around the fire and sharing the fish that Amy and Andrea had caught from the Quarry Lake. It felt like old times when I came here with my parents, I nearly cried and felt guilty. Rick and I had always sworn never to return here so not to tarnish the memory of our parents, it was a stupid promise and I realised now looking round at all the smiling faces that new memories can't replace the old but can heighten your recall of them.

"Any news doc?" Dale asked. I really liked Dale he reminded me a lot of my Dad. During his sample taking in the ambulance he had given me a hug and told me how pleased he was to meet me.

"I need everyone around the camp. Can you gather everyone up for me please Dale?" I asked sombrely trying to convey the seriousness of the situation.

"Sure thing Doc. Right away." Dale then marched off to collect the missing members of the camp. A few minutes later everyone was gathered around anxious to hear more information. I was pleased when I'd first arrived I hadn't been swamped with questions. Rick had told me he'd nearly been attacked when he had arrived because he'd left me in the city. The person who had been most vocal was a man named Ed, the only one absent when I looked around. I was told earlier by Shane that Ed was still practically unconscious as he took a beating for getting violent with his wife.

"I know this is going to be difficult to hear but I need you to understand. I had some doubts about sharing this information with you, but I realised the reason this catastrophe is as bad as it is, is because the government didn't give people the facts straight away and I'm sure they will have been aware of this fact." I paused looking round making sure everyone was paying attention. I knew they could judge the seriousness of my words as it felt like a thick fog had descended on the camp. "Looking at the samples of blood I can see that everyone has the virus in their blood stream." People started crying, yelling out questions. "Please. Quiet!" I shouted to regain the focus of the group. "Andrea. You have a question" She was the only one who had stayed quiet and just raised her arm.

"What does that mean, are we all ticking time bombs?" She asked voicing the fears everyone had.

"From what I can see and from my own observations at the hospital, it would appear that in the event of death, any death, you come back." I was met by stunned silence.

"What about you?" A person who I recognised as Lola asked, holding onto her boyfriend Eric's hand.

"I'm hard to explain." I pause trying to find a way to describe it so not to confuse people. "Has anyone heard of Resident Evil?" I asked met with the majority of nods so I continued, "In that a virus reanimated dead tissue, not saying that is what this is, but, a character from that series, Alice was infected with the virus, instead of her body succumbing to the same fate as everyone else her body bonded with the virus and it mutated." I was met with a few gasps some realising the implications. "My body has bonded with the virus to the extent my antibodies are constantly defending against it. I can't say anymore as I don't understand it fully. I don't have the equipment I need to help recreate my blood or trail any antidotes I could devise. This is why I need to go to the CDC. I would like you all to come too. It's a well-protected building we can be safe there." I let all the information I had sink in.

Shane, the main leader of the camp addressed the group. "Now I know a lot of ya are scared, hell I am too. But I've known this girl since she was born. She's the smartest, bravest girl I know." He smiled at me and made me blush slightly. "Now if she says the CDC is our best bet then I happen to agree, show of hands." Everyone raised their hands all smiling warmly at me. As we did that Amy got up.

"Where are you going?" her sister Andrea asked. I really liked Amy and Andrea. Rick had been telling me on the way back into camp how Andrea had tried to shoot him when they first met. My heart nearly stopped until he started laughing saying how the safety was on, he had a faint blush in his cheeks when he talked about her so it made me wonder if my steadfast brother had also had a wandering eye, possibly another reason he wasn't as mad about Shane and Lori. Andrea and Amy had a large age gap, not as big as mine and Rick's but their connection was still similar to ours, Andrea acting more like a parent than a sibling.

"Toilet. Man can't a girl be discrete" She rolled her eyes making the group giggle and breaking any remaining tension in the group. I was relaxed when we heard the scream and saw a zombie biting into Amy's arm and neck. I rushed straight over to her. I quickly ran into the RV and grabbed a towel off the side holding it against the most severe wound that was on her neck to stop her bleeding out before I could put the crazy idea I'd just had into action. I looked around and Andrea had ran towards us.

"I have an idea, I can't guarantee anything but it's her best shot." I tried to explain to a hysterical Andrea. She nodded at me, "Rick! Get the stretcher from the ambulance." I shouted. I'd noticed around us that Rick, Daryl, Merle and Shane had already taken down all the zombies that had come into camp. I saw three of our group on the ground, not moving, working at an emergency room during a pile up I'd learnt quickly to help the ones you can. I was also very good at being able to look around and take in my surroundings quick, it was a skill Daryl had taught me due to the attack, to be more mindful of my surroundings.

"What are you going to do?" my brother asked me returning with the stretcher

"Help me lift her" I instructed. I noticed Amy's eyes were wide still breathing but clearly in shock. I didn't answer Rick's question there wasn't any time. "Lori!" I yelled knowing Lori best would be more suited to help me. We carried Amy over to the Ambulance and placed her on the gurney inside. "Lori. I need you to suture her neck and arm wound to stop the bleeding they're not too deep but if I start the transfusion without closing the wounds it would be like running the bath without a plug." I instructed trying to remain as calm as possible. I got the needles ready to begin a blood transfusion.

"Please. Allie-Cat what are you doing?!" My brother shouted at me. I knew he was worried about my crazy plan and could see where it was going.

"I have to try it, otherwise, she's dead anyway" I told my brother resolvedly. Lori had finished the last stich on Amy's neck. I noticed that she had already started with the fever. I hooked Amy up to the heart monitor and began to give her my blood. The effect was almost instantaneous. Amy's vitals started to improve her blood pressure started to come back up and colour started to return to her cheeks. I attached a monitor for her body temperature and also noticed how it had spiked to 103 degrees bordering on Hyperpyrexia but as my blood started making its way into her system this started to fall. I smiled at Andrea to try and reassure her. Everyone that had come over to the ambulance was looking in shock hearing about Amy's vitals that I heard Rick telling people. Amy's temperature had dropped to 99, still a little high but starting to get to normal when black spots appeared in my vision and I felt myself fading into unconsciousness. The last thought in my head before I passed out was I never had that talk with Daryl.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I did writing it. Please leave a review to let me know what you think! The lines are used for either a shift in POV or time jump in current POV


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys. I apologise if the last chapter seemed rushed or chaotic I suppose it was me wanting to get to the more original parts of my story where I can completely deviate from the show plot. I hope people are still enjoying this, please leave a review to give me inspiration to continue

* * *

Rick POV

Watching over Allison reminded me so much of when she was a little girl and she cried herself to sleep after I had to break the news to her about mom and dad. When Allison first lost consciousness it was like time had stopped and I was right back in that moment from thirteen years ago. Allison and Amy now laid side by side on the two gurneys that were in the ambulance, the tubes providing Amy with Allison's blood had been removed. They both looked like sleeping angels; Amy with her blonde hair surrounding her like a halo and Allison's brunette doing the same. Amy's vitals were stable the fever had stayed down, however, she was in a coma. Shane had organised a rotation of people to keep watch over the two girls just in case Allison's plan didn't work and Amy died. Meanwhile the remainder of camp started the job of cleaning up and getting ready to head to the CDC. It was our best hope now.

"Yo Jimbo wake up" I heard Daryl instruct Jim who looked a bit out of sorts

"Ya. I'm awake" Jim muttered lazily heading in the direction of the pile of bodies we had built up. We had been lucky only four people had died. A young couple I think they were called Lola and Eric, and another woman Cathy, who was a similar age to Dale, she was a grandma to one of the other families that I hadn't had the chance to get to know yet; the final victim was Ed, Carol's husband. No one was sad about his passing.

"Jim. Is that blood?" asked a concerned Jackie

"I'm fine" Jim responded shortly

"Show me!" I heard Jackie, Jim proceeded to show Jackie what had caused the issue. I couldn't see from my vantage point but whatever it was, wasn't good, judging from the look on Jackie's face. "Ya'll Jim's been bit!" she screamed at the camp causing a flurry of activity. Daryl tried to attack Jim, but was held off by T-Dog. A lot of people started yelling, obviously scared of having someone who was infected walking around.

"Allison can save him too" I heard someone from the crowd shout. I think it was the Grandson of Cathy he looked about Allison's age.

"We even attempt to take any more blood from her she could die!" I shouted into the crowd, they seemed to understand. Yes, Allison seemed to have cured Amy but they wouldn't risk the potential of a cure for a lone person like Jim.

"We need to go to the CDC like now." Glenn interrupted.

"Everyone. Be ready to go in thirty minutes" Suddenly the new orders seemed to spur everyone on, and the low mood of the camp was slightly lifted, we all had a job to do.

I headed back to the ambulance to check on Allison and Amy. "Any change" I asked Lori who had been sitting with the girls, Andrea stood at the side of Amy having not moved since last night. Carl sat at the end of Allison's gurney he too, reluctant to leave a family member.

"I think Allison may be coming around." She answered with a smile, "No change for Amy" she added sadly.

"No change is still good." I responded trying to help Andrea as well. No doubt if it wasn't for Allison's blood Andrea would be putting a bullet in her reanimated sister right now. "Jim has been bitten" I informed the women quietly hoping Carl didn't hear.

"She can't give any more blood, not for at least 48 hours" Lori added defensively already guessing at the way camp had reacted.

"Everyone knows that, they're not coming near her. We're leaving in thirty minutes, why don't you go get your stuff sorted, I'll stay with the girls." Both women nodded at me, Andrea finally moving for the first time in hours.

"Is she going to be ok?" Carl asked me, I could still see the tears in his eyes. His auntie was his hero, whenever she was home from university she would take him on trips out; paintballing, the zoo, theme parks. She spoilt him rotten.

"Yeah son I'm sure she'll be fine. Your auntie is a Grimes and we are very tough" I informed him proudly. "I survived being shot in the chest, your Auntie can cope with losing a little blood" I smiled at my son.

Suddenly we heard a knock at the door. Daryl popped his head in. I still hadn't gotten around to talking to the man about his relationship with my sister, I knew he cared about her, it was obvious in the way he looked at her. It still irked me that this rough redneck was the guy she'd talked no stop about for a year before his abrupt departure. I wasn't stupid I knew there had to be something wrong with him for her not to mention his name. I called in a connection at the police department who couldn't say his name to me but did tell me his age. I nearly drove to New York to drag my baby sister away from this man when Lori reminded me that he had saved her. I let it go and was very glad when a year later she had told me he'd vanished. I'd set her up with Shane's cousin hoping she'd form more age appropriate relationships but he turned out to be ten times worse when I caught him bragging to his friends about 'nailing' my sister. I had seen red and given him a black eye, I was very lucky Shane was there and backed me up otherwise I would have been suspended.

"How is she doin'?" Daryl asked slightly timidly; obviously intimidated by me. I hoped I could keep him feeling that way for as long as possible.

"Lori thinks she'll come around soon. Amy is still the same. So whatever is in her blood seems to be working." Daryl let out an audible sigh obviously relieved Allison would soon be back with us.

"Everyone is ready ta roll" He informed me. At the moment people were looking to me because of my previous job and the role my sister had to play in this world. I knew it would be hard for Shane to take as he was never good at stepping down from something.

"Ok. Stay with them for a moment I'll be back soon" I instructed Daryl.

The transformation in camp was astounding, all the tents were gone and people were standing by their cars. Shane had told me that before he'd heard families talk of leaving the group to find other family members, however, it now seemed that everyone would be joining us on the trip to the CDC in an almost pilgrimage to find the cure. "Is everyone ready to go?" I asked Shane.

"Yeah man. We've reduced the vehicles to save on fuel. Merle being the only awkward one, but no one wants ta ride with him anyway. Jim is in the RV, Jackie is looking after him for now. You driving the ambulance?" He responded obviously pleased he still had some responsibility around here.

"Yeah and I know Andrea will stay with Amy, probably Daryl will stay with Allison." I informed him.

"Meanin' to ask you, what's going on there?" obviously worried about the relationship between one of the Dixon's and Allie-Cat

"He's wings" I told him with a smirk.

"You've got ta be kiddin' me. Nah we can't have that." The one thing I still liked about Shane at the moment was he was like another brother to Allison. I knew if something did happen to me that he would protect her just as well.

"Leave it mate. Think if I protest too much it'll just push 'em more together." I knew from experience trying to tell Allison not to do something would only make her want to do it more. In that respect growing up she was a typical teenager, it was the only thing that I would class as normal about her. Shane was not happy about my blasé attitude towards the situation, I could see his nostrils flaring. He huffed and walked off to his own jeep.

"Listen up people, if ya've got radios its channel 40. Those without, ya have a problem ya honk your horn. No one gets left behind" as I said my last statement my eye's caught Merle who gave me a smirk. I was quite pleased he'd been quiet since coming back into camp. I hoped Daryl could keep him that way.

The convoy consisted of ten vehicles; the smallest was probably Merle's pickup truck that could seat three in the cab whereas the largest; the RV, could probably seat up to ten people. Shane had insisted we do a head count before heading out. Lori was put in charge of creating a register of sorts with everyone's names and ages, to save time and get going quickly in a hope to save Jim she only got the details of the ones without a radio, the rest would be done on the road.

* * *

Allison's POV

It felt like someone had stomped on my head. I could hear a beeping sound that reminded me of when I worked in the emergency room and I tried to open my eyes. I must have made some movement as the person next to me started squeezing my hand.

"Come on Allie open those big blue eyes for me" I'm sure that was Daryl's voice, but it couldn't be, I hadn't seen him in years. Groggily I opened my eyes to see Daryl's gorgeous blue eyes looking at me. It felt like a rush of information flooded my head all at once. I remembered the fall in Atlanta, being on the roof with Merle, Daryl walking in, that kiss, the camp being attacked and finally giving Amy my blood.

"Ow. Did someone check the licence plate of the truck that ran my head over?" I asked Daryl who laughed at me. "How is she?" I asked referring to Amy.

"There's been no change, but, she's stable, feva is gone" He told me. That was a good sign, something must have worked. It was a long shot to start with, I knew my blood wasn't a direct cure from doing tests with the samples I had when I was in the hospital looking after Rick. I'd never tested it on someone in the process of an infection before so all this was new data, it needed to be monitored closely. "Jim, was bit" Daryl told me sadly. I tried to sit up to get the transfusion kit again, Daryl must have seen my movement and intent. "Sorry Allie, he's already gone" I was really upset about this. I knew realistically that I was in no state to try another transfusion but I wanted to be able to help everyone that was bit in our group.

"How far away are we from the CDC?" I asked Daryl

"10 minutes" my brother shouted from the front of the ambulance, finally bringing me to the attention that he was in the vehicle, thank God I didn't do anything embarrassing with Daryl.

I sat back town and let Daryl tell me everything I had missed whilst I was out. It upset me how we had lost people but I was pleased we had a large group heading to the CDC, hopefully once we got there things would start looking up. He told me how Jim had been brought along but when the RV had a small breakdown he'd asked to be left on the side of the road. Daryl gave me some food to give me back some of my strength.

"Allie-Cat come take a look at this" my brother called back into the ambulance. We must have arrived at our destination. Looking out into the graveyard that used to be the CDC parking area I felt so sad and sick but seeing the building still standing I knew there was hope.

"I need to head out alone, it's too dangerous for anyone else until I check someone is there to open the door." I told my brother. The look on his face told me he was reluctant to let me go but he nodded anyway.

"Convoy. Stay in vehicles AC is going to check entrance. Over." He said over the radio. He received several replays back acknowledging the order. I gave Daryl a quick hug, took a nervous glance at Amy and headed out towards the door of the CDC.

The smell was horrific, like a sewage treatment plant only ten times worse. None of the bodies on the ground were moving so the area was relatively safe at the moment. This amount of decaying bodies could only increase the risk of other diseases, we wouldn't be able to stay in the cities even if we found an answer to this thing. Making my way to the entrance I saw that the shutter was down. I remembered from my tour that this could only be done from the inside, so someone had to have closed it.

"Doctor Jenner, its Allison Grimes. If you're in there please can you open the door? I have a possible cure as well as a large group of survivors requiring shelter and food." I talked into the camera. I repeated my message three times just in case the person inside was away from the camera the first time. On my third time through my repeated message I saw the camera move. I never felt so relieved. The shutters started to open.

"Allison. I'm so happy you're here." Dr Jenner greeted me, however it was not the Dr Jenner I was expecting or hoping for but Edwin her husband. He was nice enough we'd shared a joke about his name when we'd met after my interview, however, I knew that he didn't have even half the skill and expertise his wife did. "I got your fax" Edwin informed me.

"Any progress?" I asked momentarily forgetting the group outside. "Wait. I need to get my group in. How is the clock?" I remembered Candace telling me about that silly clock on the wall, she called it the doomsday machine. Counting the generators down, they always kept it with about three months on it. I knew from Jenner's look it wasn't good

"Forty nine hours he informed me sadly." I felt sick. What would have happened if we had delayed our arrival at the CDC I knew that Rick hadn't intended to set out until tomorrow so we'd have had even less time? I knew I had some fuel that had been in the ambulance and was now in the trunk of one of the other vehicles but it wouldn't be able to hold out indefinitely. We would probably have enough for a couple of weeks at most, we couldn't use it all otherwise we wouldn't' have enough to put in the vehicles to get away in.

"I have some fuel" I informed him. "Is there somewhere to park the vehicles?" I asked hoping that we wouldn't need to get the group out of their vehicles in order to get people inside. It would be especially difficult to move Amy.

"Give me Ten minutes we have a garage entrance I can get VI to divert power to so you can all drive in." He gave me directions to the garage entrance and then allowed me to leave, a couple of zombies had come over obviously drawn by the smell of Edwin so I quickly dispatched those with the knife I always kept on me. Heading back to the ambulance I was apprehensive. I knew that if Candace was there she would have greeted me at the door, the fact that Edwin was the only one there worried me, however, he seemed in good spirts, obviously receiving that fax had given him some much needed hope.

"He's going to open the garage doors on the south side of the building it's about another three minutes driving" I informed Rick as I got into the passenger seat. I think Rick noticed I looked a little dejected.

"What's wrong Allie-Cat?" my brother asked worriedly

"Candace didn't come to the door, but her husband Edwin did. I'm just worried that we've come all this way and I'm still going to be on my own." I know I was sulking a little and it wasn't fair on Edwin; he was still a scientist after all but it was like waiting for a lecture by the World's best teacher only to end up with a supply teacher. Husband and wife teams were common in the scientific world just take Marie and Pierre Curie, but one was always stronger than the other. In this case Candace was a genius and I needed her so much right now.

"It'll work out Allie-Cat. I can feel it." My brother, ever the optimist reassured me. He instructed the convoy to follow the ambulance and we headed towards the parking structure for the CDC.

The carpark was located underground and the shutters were currently down, hopefully this meant there would be no surprises for us when Jenner got VI to power up that entrance. It felt like an eternity since I had been stood next to Jenner those ten minutes passed so slowly. Just as I was about to start moaning like a ten year old to my brother the shutter came up to reveal Jenner on the other side armed with a gun and looking out of breath. I wound the window down. "Sorry about that, we had a couple of live ones down here I didn't know about, all clear now." I was in shock, maybe Edwin Jenner wasn't as hopeless as I thought. The ten cars we had in the convoy drove in as Jenner guarded are entrance. As the last car rolled in I heard him give the instruction for VI to close the gate.

"First things first. I need you to get as much fuel as we can spare and ask Jenner where the generator room is." I told my brother sternly. He got out the ambulance and got straight on with his job taking a few of the men to help.

"Everyone. Gather around." I shouted to the rest of the convoy group. Having us all in a circle made me realise just how many people there were, maybe two weeks of power wouldn't be realistic with a group this size. Jenner came over

"Wow. So many people." He said out loud to himself "You all look exhausted so in a moment I will show you where the living quarters are along with a rec room and kitchen. I need everyone to submit to a blood test." Before he could go on I stopped him there.

"They all had a blood test less than forty-eight hours ago. I have all the samples in the ambulance along with someone I need you to meet urgently." I informed Jenner

"Well in that case let's get you settled as fast as possible." I headed back to the ambulance whilst Jenner took the group up into the building and the staff facilities; there would be just enough room for everyone but a few would need to share, I assumed families would want to stay together. Andrea hadn't left Amy's side it was like she was still in shock over the whole ordeal. I walked over and gave her a hug, it looked like she needed it.

"I don't know how to thank you Allison" Andrea finally spoke some words to me.

"Don't thank me yet Andrea. She's not woken up yet." I responded, even though Amy's vitals showed she wasn't dying of the bites she still remained comatose. We sat there together waiting for Jenner or the group that had gone to the generators to return. They both returned together having met up on their way back. Rick, Shane, Daryl, Glenn, and T-Dog returned with Jenner. "Edwin, this is Amy. She was bitten roughly thirteen hours ago, I gave her a blood transfusion from me, vitals improved and temperature dropped from 104 to 98." I said looking at the new reading, "She remains comatose." Jenner just listened to me but didn't look shocked.

"Right. Well let's get her moved to medical room 2, then there is someone I want you to meet." Jenner instructed. The good thing about the ambulance was the gurney, Rick and Shane both got the gurney out of the ambulance and started to wheel Amy in the direction Jenner was walking. I nearly joked how they missed their calling as Porters but thought I should resist. We set Amy up in Medical room 2 which was sort of like a private room at a top hospital, she would be comfortable here. Andrea stayed with Amy whilst the rest of us followed Jenner. Outside the room he led us to I saw a plaque indicating it was medical room 1.

Before we entered Jenner started talking, "You don't understand how happy I was to get that fax Allison. We had lost all hope. Candace was bitten." I nearly burst into tears. "Before she succumbed completely she managed to synthesise your blood." He opened the door. On a bed hooked up to machines including a respirator was Candace Jenner very much alive.

"Have you done a CAT Scan?" I asked immediately fearing the worst after seeing the respirator.

"Yes, brain activity is normal, however nothing I've tried so far has pulled her out of the coma." Jenner informed me, I could hear the hope in his voice; he wanted me to save her.

"Well then, let's get to work." I smiled at Edwin whilst the rest of the group looked on proudly.

* * *

Rick POV

Allison has been gone hours away in the lab with Dr Jenner. I could see in her eyes how excited she was, her blood held the answer. I could tell that she was worried that Amy's case was just a fluke, Allison was meticulous when it came to research she never accepted the first answer and always had to have mountains of data to back up her theories, one of her sayings was, 'one result does not an answer make' I always called her Yoda whenever she started saying that to me. The group was sat in the kitchen/rec room laughing together and having the first decent meal we'd had in weeks. Lori and Shane were sat together and it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. Andrea wasn't with the group, still refusing to leave her sisters side. I hoped we'd have answers quick, I didn't want the fiery woman I met at the department store to melt away. Daryl sat in the corner with Merle, not quite feeling like part of the group yet. Just as I was about to walk over and have that talk I needed with Daryl, Allison came rushing back into the room.

"Daryl, Merle I need you to come with me." The room had gone silent upon her entrance, I saw the faint blush appear on my sister's cheeks, obviously not too comfortable with the attention she was receiving. "Oh sorry everyone. Enjoy your meal." She directed at the rest of the group. "Hurry its important" she said to the two brothers who then got up to follow my sister.

"Well to Allison the saviour of the world." Glenn said tipsily. I laughed

"Here. Here" and raised my glass in salute to my baby sister. I hoped we were right.

* * *

Allison's POV

Looking over the results and tests that the Jenner's had done both together and then Edwin solo I started to notice a pattern. My blood was only half the answer we were missing something. I had donated some more of my blood to be given to Candace, having only had a synthetic version of my blood her vitals weren't as good as Amy's. Upon receiving the new batch of blood her vitals improved considerably to the point she could be taken off the respirator. I knew I was going round in circles looking at the data so decided to go back to my group sample and run some simulations using VI's virtual reality. Nothing seemed noteworthy until I got to Daryl's sample. His blood combined with an infected blood sample nearly eradicated the virus, but it returned after a short period of time in each simulation I ran, meaning that if we used Daryl's blood the person would need a large sample of his blood every day or so just to keep the virus in check.

I called Jenner over to show him what I had found. "Watch" I showed him the simulation excitedly. I knew that this wasn't the final answer but it was a big step.

Jenner then showed me what he had been working on, as I focused on the group samples, Jenner had a closer look at mine. The equipment I had to analyse blood was nothing compared to what the CDC had. So with the more advanced equipment I could see exactly what my blood did when it encountered the virus. My blood seemed to freeze the virus and slowly killed it. That is why the dead seemed to ignore me, I registered as one of them. My blood on its own was fighting a constant battle and I worried that long term this could eventually mean I would lose. I would have to run some simulations on that to keep my condition in check.

I suddenly had an idea. "Combine them" I spoke out loud. I ran a simulation combining my blood and that of Daryl into one sample, I then added it to the sample taken from someone who was bitten. The virus was gone. I ran the results five times open mouthed the whole time. I could feel Jenner next to me almost vibrating with excitement. It was only a simulation, I had to say that to myself over and over, but I knew this was it. I set up a quick presentation of my results giving the sample a title which was dear to me. "I'm going to get Daryl!" I shouted not even speaking to Jenner and ran straight to the rec room hoping he was there and not drowning in a bottle of Southern Comfort with his brother.

As I entered the room everyone stared at me and I felt myself blushing, I noticed that Daryl and Merle were standing off to the side of the group so decided on the spot to invite Merle along too. Leaving the room I heard Glenn's toast to me and I couldn't stop smiling.

I walked into the big room with Daryl and Merle, Jenner looked up still grinning but losing a little sparkle when he saw me flagged by two rednecks. "Oh don't be scared, their harmless" I reassured him giggling at his reaction.

Merle stalked up to Jenner. "Boo" He shouted in his face, I rolled my eyes, can't take that man anywhere.

"What ya got to show us than Angel?" Merle asked after terrorising poor Jenner

"I think I've found the answer. VI run simulation 'Angel Wings'" Merle laughed at the name, I wondered if he knew what the significance was, I would tell Daryl later, in private. The boys watched on the screen at the simulation whilst I narrated.

First I showed on the screen what normal blood looked like, then I showed infected blood which had the red blood cells being attacked by what looked like a parasite. "Sample Alpha has been taken from someone bitten one hour ago; sample bravo from four hours and sample Charlie from someone eight hours ago; the omega sample is from someone who has died and reanimated." I explained each of the samples the blood looked funny on the screen like that like little blobs of fat floating around apart from the last sample, that wasn't moving. I hadn't included the omega sample in my simulations, Jenner must have added it to my presentation whilst I went and retrieved the Dixon brothers. "'Angel Wings' created from mixing two bloods is introduced to each sample" The screen then split into four showing the reactions simultaneously. In each sample apart from the last the virus was reversed and the blood returned to that of a normal person. Even more interesting was the omega sample. When the sample was added to that the blood exploded. I looked shocked, I think I've found a weapon and a cure and didn't even realise it. The only problem would be creating a vaccine to prevent people turning who hadn't been bitten. There was no impact on the Rhesus factor that caused this when 'Angel Wings' was added to one of the groups' blood sample. Before I could speak or get back to continuing my explanation Daryl picked me up and spun me around.

"I'm in love with the saviour of the world" He exclaimed. I smiled so big it made my teeth hurt.

"Me too" I added, Daryl stopped spinning me.

"What do ya mean?" Daryl asked slightly fearful. He then proceeded to glare at Edwin. I broke out laughing and decided to put him out of his misery.

"I'm Angel. You're Wings." I decided to tell him that now and not the long winded significance of that, Rick was the only one who knew about that nickname as far as I knew. I could almost see the cogs in his head turning.

"Together!" Daryl asked excitedly.

"Always" I added kissing him just as passionately as I had on the roof.

"Alright break it up no need to be makin' babies in the middle of the floor." Added Merle jokingly.

"Actually that might be a great idea!" Jenner added excitedly

"Over my dead body" called an angry voice I didn't want to hear at the moment. Why was it always when I was kissing Daryl my brother shows up?

* * *

Just because they have a cure and a weapon it isn't going to be all plain sailing. Ideas and events you want me to include let me know when you leave a review!

Something extra for you – the register Lori completed on the journey to the CDC

* * *

The Atlanta Group Register

Vehicle 1 – Ambulance

Rick Grimes (36), Allison Grimes (20), Amy (24), Andrea (36), Daryl Dixon (33)

Vehicle 2 – RV

Dale Horvath (64), Jackie (41), Jim (47), Glenn Rhee (23), T-Dog (39)

Vehicle 3 – Jeep

Shane Walsh (35), Lori Grimes (35), Carl Grimes (11)

Vehicle 4 – Cherokee

Alex Vaughn (53), Jessica Vaughn (49), Alesia Vaughn (18) Carol Peletier (46), Sophia Peletier (12)

 _Note – Vaughn family; Peletier family_

Vehicle 5 – Toyota

Morales (38) Miranda (34) Eliza (11) Louis (9)

 _Note – family_

Vehicle 6 – Pickup truck with motorbike in bed

Merle Dixon (48)

Vehicle 7 – Nissan

Jan Harrison (41), Lesley Harrison (39), Frances Jones (28), Martha Jones (27), David Jones (30)

 _Note – Jan and Lesley sisters; Frances, Martha and David siblings_

Vehicle 8 – Ford

Orlando Ortega (31), Marianne Douglas (29), Mitch Perkins (38), Joe Perkins (16)

 _Note – Orlando and Marianne couple; Mitch and Joe father and son (Grandmother just lost)_

Vehicle 9 – Toyota

Duncan Smith (50), Ann Smith (48), Lily Smith (24), Harry Smith (5)

 _Note – Family Duncan and Ann Lily's parents; Harry is Lily's son_

Vehicle 10 – Chevrolet

Richard Bryce (29), Rose Bryce (30), Sarah Conners (35), Beth Conners (14), Mary Conners (58)

 _Note – Richard and Rose husband and wife; Three generations of Conners women_

Total in Atlanta group = 41 40

* * *

The underlined text is what Lori crossed off, I wanted to do a strikethrough but it wouldn't show up in editing the document.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer – as much as I would have liked to, I don't own TWD.

Note – First lemon in this chapter. Don't read if under 18 will give warning if you need to skip.

* * *

Allison POV

Instead of responding to my angry brother who was currently still treating me like I was twelve, I decided deflection was the best solution. "You need to see this Rick, I think we've found the answer."

Taking his cue from me not to continue the baby talk Jenner added, "When she say's we she really means just her." The more time I spent with the man the more I pitied him, it must have been difficult being in his wife's shadow professionally and he was used to being second behind a woman.

I showed Rick the presentation, watching his face become astounded. "I'm so proud of you Allie-Cat. What's the next step?" Trust my brother to be the more logical thinker right now.

"I would normally say we should do animal tests after simulations, however, the virus doesn't affect animals in the same way. The only step we can do is actually using the cure on Amy and Candace. We also have to make sure synthetic versions of our cure are as effective I doubt myself and Daryl would like to risk falling unconscious every time we need to save someone." Saying Daryl's name again brought the scowl back to my brother's face.

"What do you mean Daryl, how is he involved in this?" I needed to start remembering that not everyone was present for the first go round of this presentation

"That's why they need ta make a baby officer friendly, it's both of their blood in tha cure" Merle added, unfortunately mentioning the baby comment from earlier, I grabbed a box of tissues from the console and threw them at him, being quite weak and uncoordinated he dodged them easily. "Calm down Angel save that for Daryl in tha bedroom." Merle started doing gyrating moves with his hips.

"Shut up Merle!" Daryl reprimanded his brother, I noticed that his ears had gone red, last time I'd seen that on Daryl was our almost kiss whilst hunting five years ago, I thought it was cute then, it was adorable now.

"Right. Focus people lot's to do" I tried to bring everyone's attention back to me. "We have another issue." I spoke to the group and gestured to the clock on the wall. The current time on the wall was twelve days, eight hours, twenty-six minutes and forty-three seconds. "That clock tells us how long we have until this building will explode." Jenner looked sheepish whilst Merle, Daryl and Rick looked shocked and slightly angry. "It's not my doing, this building contains other viruses that need to be contained, if the power runs out their containment is compromised. It's a failsafe that's in place in every CDC building in the country. We have options but they're limited."

"Ok. What are the options?" Rick asked seeming to regain his calm

"We get tha hell out of here. That's what!" Merle interrupted before I could start.

"I need about five days to work on this cure and hopefully get Amy and Candace out of their comas. Probably an extra two days to start producing a viable cure and having enough to take with us. I don't think we should try to keep adding fuel to the generator." I looked at their reactions, they seemed disappointed; the walls of the CDC seemed like heaven compared to the hell that waited outside. "The city is filled with decaying bodies, eventually it won't be safe to even venture out for more supplies, our best chance of survival is heading into the countryside, possibly find a farm or a school we could fortify and send out people to look for survivors whilst myself, Jenner and Candace can continue the work we've started here."

"I understand where you're coming from but is there any way we could extend our stay here to possibly a month?" Rick asked.

"Here's the option two – I can go out tomorrow after I've had a decent night's sleep and get enough supplies to last us a month. If I can't find enough fuel we may be able to hook up the solar panels that are on the roof to make up the deficit" Rick and Daryl both looked displeased about me going out but I was the only one who could.

"I know you don't have to worry about the walkers Allie-Cat but other people might attack you to take your supplies." Rick reminded me worriedly.

"I'm going to wear as much CDC clothing as possible, I'll be in a van labelled CDC. If anyone does come across me it should be enough for them to ask questions first." I reassured my brother.

"I don't like it. But OK. I think its best we try and extend our stay here and have a more firm plan in place before we venture out."

"Ya can't be serious. We can't let her go out on her own. Naw not happening" Daryl started ranting and pacing.

"I'll be fine Daryl. I was fine being left at Bloomingdale's. Don't you start treating me like a kid too!" I pleaded with my almost boyfriend.

"Before you head off to bed Allison, I think we should try AngelWings on Candace, I know she'd want to be the test subject for this." Jenner added sadly, he had hope that the cure would work, but he knew with anything new there would be risks. I had wanted to wait a few days to run more simulations but looking the look on Edwin's face I knew he needed this to happen now.

I gestured for Daryl to come with me and extracted a vial of his blood, I then did the same with myself. Once our blood was combined I looked at it under the scope to see if the simulations were correct about how our blood interacted with each other, everything was going the same on the simulations. "Ok if you want to witness this, follow me." It didn't appear that the group wanted to miss what could be a defining moment in our battle with the dead and followed me to Candace's room. I applied the sample to her IV feed and waited.

What was probably only seconds felt like hours before Candace's vitals started to spike and her body started to convulse. Myself and Jenner stayed by her side whilst we told the others to step back. From experience we knew that she'd have to ride out the fit, we just made sure none of her tubes became removed. After about a minute the convulsions stopped and her vitals started to improve again, she didn't wake up yet which was worrying.

"You stay with her Edwin, I'm going to check on Amy and give an update to Andrea. There's not going to be much to see for a while guys you should go get set up for the night." I gave instructions.

"We're in room 5." "We're in room 9" Daryl and Rick spoke at the same time before glaring at each other. I laughed, it was nice to have some normalcy in this situation.

"Rick I love you, but I'm 20 years old." I reminded my brother. I walked over to Daryl and gave him a quick kiss.

"I'll see you soon" I told him, not wanting to add anymore to that as not to annoy my brother. Merle just gave a throaty chuckle before walking off, I could hear him tease his brother about getting some as he left the room.

* * *

"Hey Andrea. How are you doing?" I asked Andrea as I joined her in Amy's room, she looked exhausted, at least I'd somewhat slept due to being unconscious after giving Amy the transfusion, Andrea hadn't slept since Amy was attacked.

"Tired. Nervous. Scared. Happy she's still alive." Andrea rattled off obviously feeling too many things to identify one. I put my hand on her shoulder and sat down so we were at the same level.

"I believe I've found the cure." I could see Andrea was about to interrupt me with a thousand questions so I gave her a look to stop her. "It's risky and Dr Jenner gave me permission to test it on Candace first."

"Who's Candace?" Andrea asked. I really needed to take a note of who is in the room when I learn things lately, if Daryl knew I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings enough he'd scold me.

"Sorry, I forgot you didn't go with us. Candace is Jenner's wife. She was bitten quite a long time ago but thankfully I'd sent a fax with my blood profile from the hospital I was in with Rick before all communications went down. Candace is a brilliant doctor who specialises in synthetically creating blood, before the virus killed her she was able to recreate my blood, she's been in a coma much like Amy's ever since." I knew the knowledge of another individual that my blood worked on would give Andrea hope, her eyes seemed to light up with this new knowledge. "If Candace improves, I'll need your permission to give the same cure to Amy. I need you to be aware of the risks, this is an untested treatment, I have no idea of side effects or long term prognosis." I informed Andrea hoping to convey the seriousness of the situation. I knew that in all fairness Amy would already be dead. This cure would be a miracle in itself.

Andrea just nodded at me as Jenner came barging into the room. "Come. Quick." He panted out of breath at having ran down the corridor. I took off with him noticing that Andrea was following. As I entered the room I felt all the air leave my lungs. Candace was sat up. Awake.

"It's good to see you again Allison" She smiled at me.

* * *

Amy was given the same cure straight away, we'd warned Andrea that Candace had experienced convulsions when given the cure, Amy didn't have the convulsions, I made a note to investigate this after, and it was possibly due to the duration of the coma the women had been in. When Amy had woken I left the sisters embarrassing and headed to Daryl's room. As I got to the corridor with rooms I couldn't remember which room was which. I decided to try room 5 first and was met by the face of my brother. I tried to hide my disappointment that I'd got the wrong room and told him both girls were awake and talking. Rick brought me into a big hug and released me.

"I've got plenty of room in here for you" Rick stated. I laughed at him

"You know how I feel about him BB, I've waited over four years to have this talk with Daryl." I told him sternly

"It's not talking I'm worried about." My brother mumbled. I laughed at him.

"Rick it's the end of the world, I've just found a cure, let me celebrate a little." I giggled and winked at him which made him shudder. "Night brother, I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night Allie-Cat, if I haven't said already, I'm so proud of you" I embraced Rick quickly before headed to the rec room to grab a bottle of wine. There were a couple of people still in the room obviously too excited to sleep, I received a few waves from them before grabbing a nice bottle of red, I noticed a bottle of southern comfort and grabbed that too remembering it was Daryl's favourite. I then headed to Daryl's room.

I was so nervous knocking on Daryl's door. All those went away as he answered the door with just his jeans on. Shirtless Daryl was a sight to see, he had a very broad chest, well defined abs and very muscly arms with a few tattoo's darted here and there; most of his tattoos were to cover scars he'd gotten from his dad. I'd seen Daryl without a shirt a couple of times in the past, he'd been ashamed of his scars. I'd told him they made him a survivor, if he could be the strong kind-hearted man I knew after going through all that, then he was the bravest person I knew. Daryl allowed me to enter the room after I'd handed him the bottles of alcohol as my admittance fee. As he turned around I noticed a tattoo I hadn't seen before. It looked Arabic. "That's new, what does it say?" I asked pointing to the new tattoo which was just above his heart.

"Well, ya see. Err. This is a good wine, do you want me to pour ya a cup" Daryl responded completely avoiding the topic.

"Daryl, I think I can remember where you are ticklish." I taunted him with a smirk

"It says Allison" he finally admitted begrudgingly. I smiled pleased that I'd had such an impact on him too.

"Well then, since you've shown me yours." I then started to undress. Daryl just stared at me hungrily. I only had to remove my pants to show him the tattoo but I thought I'd catch up with him in the clothes department. I was down to my bra and knickers when I brought Daryl's attention to my tattoo.

"Wings. DD" he muttered inspecting my piece of art

"Like the wings off your jacket and DD, doesn't need explaining." I answered him

"So ya'll branded like me." He spoke with so much love in his voice.

"I'm yours" I answered simply. Daryl then proceeded to kiss me like he was starving and I was the buffet.

"This is it Allie, me and ya, no more waiting, no more losing each other. I want ta take this slow girl but I can't, I've waited too long for ya to be mine." Daryl spoke between kisses.

* * *

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx M Rated skip if you need to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I feel the same." It wasn't long before we were on the bed finally getting to show each other how much we loved each other. Daryl removed the remainder of his clothes whilst I quickly followed suit and took off my underwear. Daryl's eyes seemed to glow as he took in my body. Daryl was erect and ready to go. I was about to ask about protection when he silenced me with a kiss; slowly climbing on top of me on the bed, careful not to crush me.

"I've never." I told Daryl softly indicating that he would be my first and hopefully only; his face lit up like I'd given him the greatest ever gift, there are some sweet things about territorial men, ownership is not one of them. Daryl began to play my body like an expert making sure I was fully ready for him. Just before he entered me he looked deep into my eyes seeking permission. I whispered, "I love you." I gave him a strong nod.

"I love you with all my heart." Daryl muttered reverently before entering me swiftly, I felt a sharp pain and then nothing but pleasure as Daryl made love to me. Daryl spent the next two hours worshipping my body like a temple. I'd read magazines which talked about the first time and what sex was actually like. The scientist in me knew it wasn't like they portrayed in the movies, but being with Daryl, it was like we were made for each other. Finally at the end Daryl whispered he loved me and I slipped into dreamland muttering I loved him too.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx end of lemon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

* * *

Morning sex is just as much fun as evening sex. It's a fact. I will obviously need to collect lots of data on this. As I looked at myself in the mirror I wondered if I looked different. Would everyone be able to tell just by looking at me? I couldn't get the grin off my face as Daryl wrapped his arms around me from behind and kissed my neck before encouraging me to try shower sex. I obliged obviously but soon started to regret it when I realised how sore I was.

"Are ya sure ya going alone on that run today?" Daryl asked me after we'd both finished our showers and gotten dressed.

"Yeah. I'm heading to one of the more central petrol stations first to get fuel, figured they would have been too over run in the initial outbreak for people to hit. Then I'm heading to a Walmart to get as much as possible. Finally there's a couple of medical places I'm going to visit just to see if I can get anymore equipment, Jenner has quite a bit but it's limited I need to see what's out there. I might not bring it all back. I can always go on another run." I informed him giving him another hug and kiss.

Daryl and I entered the cafeteria to applause. I blushed hoping this was because of the cure and not that they'd heard our activities from the previous night. I was relieved it was the former when I saw Amy sat in a wheelchair at the table laughing and talking with everyone.

"Dr Jenner has shown us the presentation Allison. We're so proud of you dear." Dale spoke for the group. I noticed that my brother was absent, he probably decided to drink last night and is a little hungover.

"Thank you Dale. I'm heading out on a run in a bit, going to Walmart. Could you start getting lists from people of special requests I'll try and get?" I asked Dale who seemed to take on the fatherly role in the group. As I sat down at the table T-Dog placed a plate in front of me of scrambled eggs, I knew they weren't the fresh kind but they tasted good anyway.

"You hungover dad?" Carl asked drawing my attention to my brother who entered the room

"Yeah too much celebrating bud." My brother answered giving a little nudge to Carl's head.

"Well ma hangover was to cope wit' all that noise from ma next door neighbours busy making those babies." Merle added effectively putting me off my food due to embarrassment. The majority of the group laughed at us, even Rick, who I hoped finally accepted me and Daryl.

"Yo bro. Shut up!" Daryl told Merle.

"Well at least one of us is getting some. On ya run can ya bring someone home for me baby sis?" I would be completely disgusted by Merle's suggestion but my heart warmed at him calling me sis.

"That's a point." Rick started, earning himself a glare from me. "Not what I meant Allie-Cat put the claws away" he giggled at his own joke. "I just meant that if you find any groups try and encourage them to come with ya. Safety in numbers, but be careful, there might be some hostiles out there." At that statement I felt Daryl tense next to me.

"Stop freaking him out." I spoke to my brother. "I'll be fine. Everyone get started on your lists I'm going to check on Candace and Dr Jenner." I gave Daryl a quick kiss earning another holler from Merle and headed to the main room.

* * *

"Hey Candace, Hi Edwin. How are you feeling?" I asked looking at Candace.

"I'm alive, thanks to you and your friend." Candace answered me

"My boyfriend actually." I answered with a blush

"Oh that is interesting, did you know that a lot of studies have been done on attraction and some believe we are attracted by properties in each other's blood that will make a good offspring" Candace started getting all scientific. I just laughed at her.

"Don't start saying that to Daryl he'll call me a vampire only after his blood, it's taken us five years to even get to this point." I informed her

"Wow you've known each other a long time" Edwin inputted

"We sort of got separated for a while back there, do you remember that research project I did when I found a vaccine for H3N2" Both scientists nodding at me having contacted me due to that project. "Daryl was test subject 8" I added with a smirk.

"Wow his blood was amazing, I can't believe I forgot about that, I actually recreated his blood, we've got quite a few batches of it in storage." Candace added, this was amazing and would half the amount of work we had to do.

"That's brilliant it should only take me a couple of days to test out the synthesised cure version" I spoke excitedly. "I'm going on a run soon, is there anything the two of you need or that I should look out for?" I asked finally diverting the conversation away from science.

Candace's heart monitor started to race. "What do you mean going out there!" she started screaming.

"Candace calm down, I'm immune." I told her trying to get her breathing back under control.

"Yes I understand that but you could still get attacked and the bite could make you bleed to death!" she yelled at me still angry.

"Oh haven't you told her?" I asked Edwin.

"Haven't gotten round to it yet Allison" answered shamelessly obviously knowing that he should have had that conversation with Candace.

"The dead don't pay attention to me Candace, it's like I'm invisible." I let her know noticing the sagging of her shoulders in relief.

"Well you still need to be careful." She instructed like a mother hen. Candace and I had been in contact over the years due to my research overlapping with what they were doing at the CDC, when I had my interview it was our first actual face to face meeting and I was overwhelmed by how Candace made me feel part of the family straight away.

"There are a couple of small hospitals close by as well as a care home people may have overlooked." Edwin gave me the information I was hoping for. I knew I didn't want to venture out far so that I wasn't gone too long. I knew that if I was longer than a few hours either Daryl or Rick would come chasing after me.

"Thanks Edwin. What are you going to be doing for the rest of the day? Do we have any more simulations to run?" I asked eager to use our time here wisely.

"Need to do some tests on both Amy and Candace; check that the virus is completely gone, going to test if they could be re-infected or if they're now immune like you." Edwin informed me whilst Candace looked on proudly.

"Right I'm going to leave you guys to it. I will come see you later Dr Jenner for that report" I said eagerly.

"Good luck out there Allison" they both told me sincerely

I went to the garage to get the CDC van ready and found Daryl already there, he'd removed all the equipment from the van and some empty tanks into the van. I just stood and watched him for a little bit taking in his strong arms. Remembering last night when those arms were wrapped around me. "Ya gonna stand there all day or are ya gonna help me?" Asked Daryl pulling me out of my daydream.

I blushed embarrassed to be caught out. "Nice ta know ya haven't lost the ability to blush" Daryl told me as he came over to me.

"About last night. We didn't use any protection." I told him guiltily. Daryl looked unrepentant.

"Dr Jenner told me not to, when you went to check on Andrea and Amy." He informed me sheepishly

"And since when do you do what some tells you to do?" I asked slightly angrily.

"Well it's about the survival of the world ain't it?" Daryl answered trying to hug me to calm me down whilst I tried pushing him away.

"We're not about to become a modern day Adam and Eve ya know!" I nearly screamed at him.

"I know that." He muttered shamefully.

I knew Dr Jenner whose field before he joined his wife was evolution studies was just thinking about the scientific benefits of myself and Daryl having children, what shocked me more was Daryl going along with it. "On my run Daryl I'm going to find some Plan B and get some condoms or other form of birth control." Daryl looked upset. "I'm not ready to be a mother yet, and I'm not bringing a child into this world to be a lab experiment." I told him crossly.

"I'm sorry." I finally let him hug me. "I just wanted to be as close ta ya as possible." He finally admitted. I kissed him deeply.

"We don't need to be making a baby to be close together. I'm yours I'm not going anywhere." I told him reassured. I turned around to start loading up bags to put in the van. When I turned back Daryl was on his knees in front of me.

"Marry me?" He asked with a smile on his face. My first thought was smacking the smile right off his face.

* * *

That's it for now. As I've hinted she's off to the care home. Review please.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer – I own nothing but my OC Allison

Enjoy and review

* * *

Allison POV

As I travelled through the streets of Atlanta I couldn't help but be reminded of that movie _I am Legend_ with Will Smith. Just thinking of that made me wonder what happened to celebrities in all this chaos; are they out there surviving too or were they caught off guard thinking they'd wandered into a horror movie. The ones that survived the initial outbreak, are they with a group? Can they cope living like regular people again? It felt weird being on my own again, having such a large group for the last few days I was starting to get used to the noises of people. Being out here again alone reminded me of the month in the hospital with Rick, the only company I currently had were the few zombies that were currently around. Having no stimuli to motivate them they seemed to just wonder in small groups; their own sound dragging them along.

I knew the next few steps in the cure process were going to be difficult; as a group we were outnumbered by the zombies out there and no matter what treatments or cures I could develop there would be no turning back for the already deceased. I'm not a God I can't bring people back to life. Jenner had shown me a run through of one of his test subjects who volunteered to have the process recorded whilst the equipment scanned his brain. Test subject 18 gave us insight into how it invaded and killed the brain. When Jenner showed me Test subject 19 I knew that was Candace's scan. The introduction of my blood even though it was synthetic stopped the virus in its tracks, it was scary how close Candace's scan had come to looking like the scan of test subject 18. The only thing I could think of that could possibly help the current zombies would be if we could somehow either take away their need to feed or return some more brain function. I was letting my thoughts wander as I needed to distract myself from Daryl.

I know the world had changed but a proposal after being a couple for less than a day was pushing it. I just told Daryl he was stupid and left him there. I felt a bit bad about that, I know how hard it is for Daryl to do anything that requires an emotional component. I knew I'd have to do something big to make it up to him, I just don't know what yet.

I'd already got four tanks full of fuel. I was correct in thinking the inner city petrol stations were too overwhelmed for anyone to get in to get fuel. There was still a lot of fuel at that station so I could make another run there if Rick still wanted to stay longer. The fuel I had gotten should last the complex well over a month even with a large group using all the electrical appliances. The van I had taken from the CDC was the biggest that was available, I knew I'd have difficulty getting it down small streets but I knew from when I stayed with Merle that the main streets were baron of traffic due to everyone leaving the city. I'd attached a trailer at the back of the van and had placed the fuel in that section. The last thing I needed was unsecure barrels of fuel rolling around. It would be just my luck that I got killed from being clumsy.

Arriving at Walmart I realised the scope of the problems we would face. There were thousands upon thousands of zombies. I wondered for a moment if there were survivors inside that would make them congregate like this, but when I drove up to the service door I saw that all the entrances were open allowing the zombies to walk into the store. I parked the van as close as I could get it, some zombies looked up at the sound and seemed confused; they could sense the sound obviously but there was no tasty smell to go with it. The closest I could get to the building was about fifty metres; I would have to use some shopping carts to load up the van. Arriving in the store I saw that there were a few dead people on the ground that were currently being devoured by the hungry zombies so there was a possibility that a group had only just been over-run by the dead. I needed to focus on my job and get the supplies for the group. The store was still quite full but along with the smell of the dead there was also the smell of decaying food produce; I'm not sure which was worse.

Food was my first stop, I had grabbed the largest shopping cart I could find and started loading up all the cans I could. The more time I spent in the store the more I became aware that a group had been here until recently, there were sleeping bags on the ground and some personal objects; the sight of a teddy bear nearly made me burst into tears. There were a lot of sleeping bags in an area towards the back of the store, with only seeing a couple of bodies at the front of the store I hoped this meant that some of the group had managed to make it out, possibly out the back or they could be still in the building hiding. This thought worried me, if they were here could I get them out.

"Hello!" I shouted at the top of my voice, feeling a bit weird after a couple of hours of not talking. A few zombies that were near me looked up at my shouting and wondered near me, but went away again when they didn't smell anything. "If there are any survivors in the store please let me know, I can help!" I shouted again very loudly. I realised it must be scary for some people if they were in the store still to hear someone shouting and knowing the store if over-run with zombies. I got no response so continued in my work.

* * *

I'd loaded up the van with six shopping carts full of food; ten shopping carts full of clothes in various sizes; and four shopping carts full of toiletries. I'd taken all the weapons and ammunition I could find. The best thing about Walmart is being able to buy anything; got to love the Second Amendment in a zombie apocalypse. The Walmart also had a small pharmacy where I'd quickly found what I needed along with a lot of other medication we would need as a group. The youngest child of the group, Harry, was asthmatic so I found plenty of his medication. Hopefully his asthma is the kind that kids grow out of. Another member of the group Beth Conners has epilepsy, her condition was worrying and she'd already had one fit after the attack on the quarry as her medication was not working effectively due to all the stress of the situation we were in. Her mother had given me a list of all the medication she'd been on in the past along with the doctor recommendations for future treatment. The group was lucky having three doctors on it; Lori had done a good job with collecting the register for the group, before I left I asked her to get the information on what skills and professions the group had, we needed to know what we had as a group and start thinking of starting over.

I'd been in the store now for two hours; I had promised my brother I wouldn't be more than eight hours so I still had plenty of time for my other planned stops. Before I left I started working on the lists of special requests from people. Some of the requests were stupid; Marianne Douglas had requested I find her some hair extensions, she needed shorter hair; a zombie would use her hair to grab onto. Lesley one of the sisters had asked for a ridiculously expensive face cream that she'd seen in a magazine once and cost over two thousand dollars in the old world, I'd laughed at that people wanted the expensive stuff whilst looting. Some of the requests were more sensible, chocolate featured high on the majority of people's lists so that was my first stop. As I was loading up my cart full of chocolate I heard a tapping and suddenly recognised a crude form of Morse code, it was the basic SOS. I thought I was imagining it for a moment but after it repeated two more times I knew it must be a survivor or survivors.

"If you can hear me copy this." I shouted out. I then tapped out the pop goes the weasel tune the best I could. For a second I thought I had imagined the SOS tap but then I received the taps copying my tune. I breathed a sigh of relief, there was a survivor. "Can you see me?" I asked, "One tap for no, two taps for yes." I instructed. I received two taps. I started looking around but couldn't see my survivor. I finally noticed a camera moving. "Are you in the office?" I asked. Two taps. "Can you use the tannoy system?" I asked hoping to have an actual conversation with this person.

"How are you walking around the store?" a young sounding female voice asked.

"I have a weird immunity" I answered. "Are you safe?" I shouted

"There are four of us in here and about ten of those things just outside the room" The voice on the intercom informed me.

"I'll be there in a minute I announced." I started heading to the section of the store where I noticed marked staff only, hoping this would lead me to the people I had talked to, it was lucky I was in the chocolate aisle when they tried contacting me they wouldn't have heard me otherwise there must have only been one wall between that aisle and the office I now faced. I saw the zombies clawing greedily on the door and took out my hunting knife killing them quickly. It was weird killing these things they didn't even react when I grabbed their arms to stab them. I then knocked on the door. "It's safe. Can you open the door?" I asked. I heard the click of the lock and the moving of furniture they had obviously used to barricade the door before the door opened to reveal the survivors.

Inside the room was a young Latino woman who looked about the same age as me and three children who looked no older than five. "Hello. My name is Allison Grimes" I introduced myself

"Hi I'm Valentina, these are my cousins Mateo and Diego and this is Mia, she was with our group." The young woman answered obviously slightly wary of me.

"How long have you been in here?" I asked curious to how this small group survived.

"The others in the group always had us stay in here just in case. A week ago they got through the door and everyone is gone." She answered tearing up slightly. "We have a toilet in the back and I've made the food last as long as possible." I knew then that she'd almost been starving herself in order to keep the young children fed. She looked very tired and skinny, the children were playing with their toys in the corner completely unaware of the terror that the poor girl must have witnessed on the monitors of the store.

"Ok. We need to think of a way to get you out. I've got a van outside nearly loaded up but there are thousands out there. I can walk past them but you can't." I informed Valentina. "I'm based at the CDC we have shelter and a cure"

Valentina jumped into my arms hugging me. She then did a cross against herself. "These are the plans of the building it might help" she said showing me a map it had a load of squiggles on it from the young children drawing on it, but it also had a few mapped out routes to get out the store.

"There" I pointed out on the map a side exit that was near to this room. "I can drive the van around to this entrance then come back in the building from the front grab you and exit that way." I told Valentina of the plan watching her eyes light up. "We can also camouflage you" I told her wearily watching her eyes crinkle with confusion.

"What do you mean camouflage?"

* * *

After getting the children and Valentina covered in the zombie guts from the ones that surrounded the door we put our plan into action. I got Valentina to barricade the door again and wait for me. I went back into the store to finish my supply run and load up the van. I made sure to be quick when finishing this job, I could see how emotional Valentina was and I didn't want to leave her long. The van still had room in it but I knew getting Valentina and the children safe was more important than non-essential supplies right now, at least the group had chocolate now the other special requests would have to wait for another time. I got into the van and took out the radio my brother had given me before leaving. I didn't want to use it often as I worried if I said the wrong thing on it Daryl or Rick might do something stupid, like come after me. "BB Come in. over"

"AC read you go ahead. Over." I heard my brother's voice nice and clear.

"Got fuel and essential supplies. Found a small group of survivors at Walmart. A young girl and three small children. Over" I informed my brother

"Can you get them out? Over." Asked my brother with a slightly concerned voice

"Plan in place. Will radio with update in thirty minutes. Over" I told my brother, didn't need him radioing me and risking the young group.

"Copy. Be Safe. Over" I could hear the worry in his voice.

"Will do. Tell Wings." I paused not knowing the right words to say, the more time I'd spent out here today and finding that group put a lot of things into perspective for me, I loved Daryl, the world was fragile now, he could be taken away from me without a moment's notice. "Tell him I'll see him soon. Over". One thing my brother was is perceptive, he would probably tell from my hesitation on what to say that something was going on, it would be fun to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. I knew after being away from him for a while that I was being stupid for reacting as I had to his proposal. I've been in love with the man for five years I should be jumping up and down that he wanted to make an honest woman out of me.

I put the radio back in the glove compartment and drove the van around the side of the store. There weren't as many zombies at this side of the store so I was able to park quite close to the door. I made sure the van was secure and kept the passenger door open. Because of the size of the van the whole group of four would be able to sit in the front of the van with me. I tried the door but it was locked from this side meaning I would have to stick with the plan and go back through the front. I ran through the store pausing briefly at where the sleeping bags were. I noticed a picture near one of the bags earlier, on a closer look I noticed the picture contained Valentina and the two boys along with a lot of other family members, I decided to grab the picture in the hopes it would make Valentina happy and give the boys something to remember. I got back to the office door, before I knocked I killed a couple of zombies who were in the corridor again and secured the staff entrance to the store so no more could get through from behind us in our escape.

"Valentina I'm back please open the door" I heard the lock click and opened the door again. Diego was crying on the floor not happy about being covered in zombie blood. Mateo looked quite happy with himself and Mia had fallen asleep. Valentina looked happy to see me.

"Are we leaving now?" she asked hopefully

"Yes the fire door only opens from this side. The van is right outside the door, there may be a few of them outside but stay quiet and they won't notice you due to the smell." I told her. She passed me the sleeping Mia and grabbed a hold of Mateo and Diego. Silently exiting the building was easy, unfortunately Mateo started screaming when he saw the zombies so we had to run inside the van quickly. Valentina just managed to get the door closed before the zombies started banging on the side of the van. I started the van and drove us out of the Walmart parking lot quite a few of them started to follow us so I would have to drive around for a bit to lose their interest. Valentina calmed her cousin down whose crying had turned to hiccups. Poor little Mia had slept through the whole thing, still nestled in my lap.

"I'm going to take you to the CDC, you'll be safe there." I told her passing her the picture I had found in the store. She looked at it sadly but smiled silently stroking the faces of her family.

"My mama told me that if something happened to her I needed to go to my papa" she informed me.

"Do you know where he might be?" I asked her, I didn't have time for a wild goose chase but I was reluctant to upset her, looking at her again in better light I could see that I was wrong about her age, I just assumed the same age as me due to how tall she was, but looking at her again she looked no older than thirteen.

"He works at a care home, about ten minutes from here. He wouldn't have left there." She told me confidently. A care home was one of the places I had planned to check so it wouldn't be deviating from my original plan, it would just be harder with vulnerable people on board.

"Ok, you been the navigator. We'll check it out, but you need to listen to me at all times. Clear" I told her sternly.

"Yes I understand" she told me slightly excited. I hoped her father was alive it would be nice to reunite her with some of her family. It didn't take us long to get to the care home. I parked the van near the entrance which looked more like a garage then a residential home and looked around to see if there were any zombies. The area was empty so I informed Valentina to stay in the van whilst I checked out the care home. She seemed reluctant to let me go but I gave her a glare reminding her of our conversation and she nodded her head. I left her with a gun and a knife.

"Any problems honk the horn. Stay down and keep quiet, I won't be long" I informed her.

I walked towards the entrance and heard a few voices indicating that there was a group based here. I worried that I made a bad call and maybe I should have radioed my brother before encountering another group.

"Stop right there. Hands up!" I heard a gruff voice call out. I did as instructed. Several Latino men were surrounding me pointing their guns at me, obviously distrustful of strangers, I wondered if they had encountered other groups. I would have been happy at finding such a large group of survivors if their guns weren't pointed at me. They seemed organised and well led but the fact they didn't shoot me on sight led me to believe that these were good men just defending their home.

"Hello. I'm Allison Grimes. I'm looking for Valentina's father." The man who seemed to be in charge stepped forward.

"I'm Guillermo Valentina is Felipe's daughter. Do you know where she is?" he asked. I noticed he had gestured to a few of his men to lower their guns.

"She's safe." I saw the breath the man who had been identified as Valentina's father leave his body, relaxing after knowing his daughter is alive. "I also have Mateo and Diego, she said they were her cousins" The man was now smiling like a Cheshire cat. "I have a van of supplies, I found them at Walmart, and I'm heading back to the CDC shortly. Your group would be welcome" I informed Guillermo.

"Bring the van in. There is something you should see." Guillermo informed me nodding to the rest of the men to drop their weapons. I quickly made my way back to the van and knocked on the window. Valentina opened the door to let me in.

"You were right, your father is here. Let's go see him." I told her starting the van back up and driving into the garage of the care home. As soon as we were safe inside Valentina opened the passenger door and ran into her father's arms. Mateo and Diego ran out too grabbing onto their uncles legs. It was a tearful reunion so I looked away and grabbed Mia out of the van. The little girl was now awake and looking fearfully at all the men around us.

"This way" Guillermo directed me. I made sure to lock the van, I suspected that the men here were a possibly trustworthy group but I couldn't risk it yet. As he led me through the garage area where some of his men were fixing cars we came to the main care home. As I walked down the corridor I saw many rooms occupied by the elderly residents, with young men looking after them. I knew now the issue Guillermo was worried about.

"How many people do you have here?" I asked him when we arrived at what I assumed was the main room.

"We have twenty-six residents along with thirty Vato's." he told me looking at my eyes to gage my reaction to this figure. It would be difficult with the older people; the risk of one of them dying and hurting others was high. However I could tell from how organised this group was that they would make a good addition to our community. They were like a ready formed army and that would be needed for when we ventured out of the CDC.

"How are you doing for medication? You know that it's not just the bites." I started but Guillermo interrupted.

"yeah we know no matter how you die you come back, found that out the hard way a week ago when Mrs Jones died in her sleep lost two good men and another resident." He informed me sadly. I liked how he called them residents instead of just old people, it showed his respect towards them.

"There is room at the CDC." I told him his eyes lightly up slightly. I decided to give him the big news. "We have a cure." I told him. A few of the others that were around us heard and gasped. I didn't give them time to question me. "I can fit the majority of the Vato's in the van, they'd have to stand up and be a bit like sardines but it could work, do you have another vehicle you could transport the resident's in?"

"We have a bus that could hold them all just needs some fuel." Guillermo informed me.

"Right then. Let's get to work."

* * *

It took another couple of hours but everyone was ready to go. I'd kept in contact with Rick giving him constant updates about what we were up to as a group. As I'd watched the Vatos get organised I became more and more convinced they would be good for our group. It was decided that the residents would ride in the bus that was operational with three of the Vato's riding with them, the rest of the Vatos along with the children would go in the CDC van with me.

Guillermo drove the bus with two Vatos; Miguel and Louie riding along to support the residents. "Stay behind me, if you run into any problems honk the horn once and I'll stop." I instructed Guillermo.

"Okay chica, thank you for this" Guillermo told me sincerely.

"Thank me when we get there. It's getting dark we need to hurry" I told him conscious of how dark it was getting but it had been decided that we would head out this evening rather than risk another night in their current environment when the promise of somewhere fortified was available. We headed to our respective vehicles and headed out. Mia was once again cuddled on my lap. Valentina had told me more about the small child. She had joined their group with her mother who was named Carly. Mia is two and a half years old and hasn't spoken a word to anyone since this whole thing started. I felt for the small child whose attachment to me already made me think that I'd inherited a child already, I wonder how Daryl would feel about that given the fall out we had had this morning about me having children. I could see him using poor little Mia as a way to convince me to have one of my own. I still needed to have a talk with Edwin about encouraging Daryl to knock me up right away. Yes I was a key component in the battle with this virus but putting that on me too wasn't fair.

We were five minutes from the CDC, I'd just radioed in our imminent arrival when the unthinkable happened. The bus honked from behind. I stopped just in time to see the bus drive into a car parked on the side of the road and flip over.

* * *

Sorry for the delay in this chapter. Bit of a block with some aspects. Hope you like it. Please review


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer – I own nothing but my OC Allison

Enjoy and review

* * *

Allison POV

It was chaos. I'd gotten Felipe to drive the van towards the CDC entrance and get help leaving me to help the people on the bus. We were lucky that there weren't any dead around when the bus crashed but the reason for the crash was there were dead inside. One of the elderly residents must have died in their sleep on the way to the CDC and then reanimated. I managed to get on the bus and take stock of the situation. One of the Vatos; Louie had already died and come back, he didn't have any bites so the crash must have killed him. At least five of the residents had already reanimated. I killed them as quickly as possible before they could kill anyone else. Several of the residents were bitten as well as Guillermo who also sported a nasty head wound and was barely holding consciousness.

"Everyone who can still walk, start making your way off the bus" I instructed sounding more confident than I felt. I made my way to Guillermo to support him off the bus.

"Allison!" I head Daryl and my brother yelling. They must have sped to get to me so quick. My brother and Daryl had brought back an empty van in order to evacuate the survivors.

"I'm ok" I shouted back to my anxious loved ones. I grabbed hold of the unconscious Guillermo and started making my way off the bus. I smelt gas and I knew I was in even more trouble.

I'd just gotten off the bus when it exploded. The blast knocking me off my feet and my head hit the pavement hard.

* * *

When I woke up I was in one of the more luxurious observation rooms in the CDC. Daryl was asleep on the chair next to my bed. Mia was cuddled in his lap. I smiled seeing how peaceful they looked together and it became even more cemented in my mind that we were now adoptive parents to the little two year old. I didn't want to wake them but I needed to know what had happened whilst I'd been knocked out.

"Daryl" I spoke out loud, hoping to wake him and leave Mia to her hopefully pleasant dreams. Daryl, always the light sleeper opened his eyes quickly, seemingly startled at the sound of my voice.

"Oh thank god" He breathed

"How long?" I asked worriedly.

"Nearly a week. Doc said ya had a pretty bad concussion. Nothing is broken and ya gonna be fine." He said reciting all the information he was given.

"What about the group?" I asked

Daryl looked at me sadly. "I'm sorry love not many made it out ok"

"How many, and is Guillermo ok?" Guillermo was a strong leader and I hoped he was ok as he would be a key member in the group.

"The leader who was bit?" Daryl queried, obviously not good with names

I nodded. "He had the cure and he woke up a couple of days ago, his head wasn't as bashed up as ya, the other member of his crew on the bus, think his name is Miguel, he's ok. We lost a lot of the old folks. I don't know how many there were at the beginning but we got five left." I shuddered, that meant we had lost twenty-two people in a single incident. Tears came to my eyes, I couldn't help but blame myself, if I never suggested them coming here they might have had longer lives.

Daryl seeing my distress quickly shifted Mia so she was on the chair behind him and came and embraced me in his arms. "Hey it's not ya fault, they have a chance here now. Don't cry please." He pleaded. He was never good with me crying. I remember when we watched Titanic and I cried at the end. Daryl had nearly ran out of the apartment my crying freaked him out that much. "Ya did good, there were fifteen that made it off the bus but some of them had medical conditions that caused problems. I know Doc Jenner will be in later to talk about it all with ya. I don't understand it all." He admitted sadly.

I settled into Daryl's embrace. "How are you liking our new addition?" I asked in order to break the tension and nodded to where Mia was sleeping. A small smile came over Daryl's face.

"She wouldn't leave ya side, and then after a while she wouldn't leave mine. Guess we ended up with a kid after all." Saying that reminded me about the medication I'd picked up and suddenly realised would no longer be affective. It had been longer than 72 hours after we'd had sex and I hadn't taken the Plan-B. I decided not to worry about that for now we had more things to worry about.

"How are things running here?" I asked worried that the new group wouldn't have settled in.

"I haven't been out much, didn't want ya to wake up alone." He informed me guiltily. I thought it was sweet. "Rick normally pops in to check on ya every few hours so he'll be along soon." He said my brother's name with some fondness so they must have bonded over my ill health. "Everyone has their own jobs and things seem to be running ok. Merle caused a couple of problems going through withdrawal, got him locked up in a room down the hall. Luckily Doc had some Methadone and ya picked up some stuff in that pharmacy that helped." I could tell Daryl was worried about his brother but I knew from the bags under his eyes he had spent most of his time watching over me. Before we could continue our conversation Mia woke up.

"Allie!" she shouted before leaping from the chair and on top of me on the bed. It was nice to see the little girl so animated having spent most of our time together with her asleep on me. "Dar said his kisses would wake you up." She added. I gathered Dar was her way of saying Daryl, it was sweet that it sounded like she was calling him Dad, I hoped that stuck when she got older.

"Yep Daryl was right. I'm all better now." I added giving her a hug back. Daryl looked at us with a gleam in his eye and smiled at me, our happy family moment was interrupted by Rick and Doctor Jenner rushing in.

"We heard Mia scream is everything ok?" Rick asked not seeing me behind Daryl.

"Well you tell me" I replied. With that I was jumped on by my brother. "Hey need to breathe here!" I shouted trying to get the weight of both Rick and Mia off me.

"Oh Allie-Cat I'm so glad you're awake I've been so worried. Rick told me with tears in his eyes.

"Yeah lucky me, the zombies don't get me exploding buses do." I muttered darkly. "Daryl's told me some of what has been happening but I need to know the rest.

Daryl left with Mia to get something to eat whilst Rick and Doctor Jenner brought me up to speed on everything that had been happening. Guillermo's group had settled in well very upset about their losses on the way here but no one blamed me. Apparently one of the residents had decided they didn't want to go on anymore had managed to get hold of all their medication and took it at once before I even arrived at the care home. During the journey that medication had finally killed the man, the Vato's had shielded the residents from the truth about dying brings you back so he hadn't known that his death could cause more, he just wanted it to be over. A surviving resident who was also Valentina's Abuela had known about Mr Gilbert's plans and didn't tell anyone. She was heartbroken when she realised the gravity of that decision. Some of the residents who made it back to the CDC had died afterwards due to their injuries being too severe. The cure hadn't worked fast enough prompting Doctor Jenner to assume the cure had an age limit on it related to the time after a bite. The residents had a slower circulatory system so the cure couldn't get round fast enough to save them. The virus replicated at the same speed no matter what your age.

Due to having turned people in the CDC, Jenner was able to test out some theories in a controlled environment. He found that the cure didn't make you invisible to walkers. This upset me slightly it would have been nice if that was an added benefit of having my blood. However Jenner was able to come up with something that acted as camouflage, instead of coating people in walker guts he developed a fragrance that could be sprayed around a person lasting up to two hours and would make the walkers ignore that person. Shane and T-Dog had lead a group using this fragrance to clear out the rest of the fuel at the petrol station I told them about. They didn't know how long I would be unconscious and didn't want to risk having to leave the CDC prematurely. The next step we were planning on working on was developing ways of stopping walkers being a risk by seeing if we could remove their hunger for humans.

Rick told me sadly that some people had chosen to leave the CDC yesterday in order to search out other family members. The Morales family had decided to go to Birmingham; Richard and Rose Bryce had decided to go with them and the Vaughn family had decided to leave and head to Washington. This upset me as Alesia Vaughn was one of the few people in the group who was a similar age to me. Nine of the Vato's had volunteered to go with the groups, three in each in order to provide support for the families. Each group were given a pack containing some camouflage spray and ten vials of the cure. They were given radios and batteries if they were close to us again and told to spread the news that the CDC had developed a cure.

Lori had done an amazing job of keeping a record of who we had in our group and the skills they offered. Amongst them was Duncan Smith who was an excellent mathematician having taught it at Caltech. He had done the numbers on resources and calculated that in order to keep the CDC running we wouldn't be all able to live in the building. As the CDC would be a place in order for other survivors to come for help we needed to establish other communities. Another group was currently on route to the nearest hospital in order to see if they could get the air ambulance and possibly use that to scout out other locations and air drop messages to other groups about the cure and ways of surviving, we were lucky to have a member of our group who was a qualified pilot.

I was so proud of my brother for all the things he had accomplished in a week, upon leaving my room he asked me to write the message that could be air dropped to survivors. Whilst we were talking Candace Jenner came in with some food having been told by Daryl that I was awake.

"Eventually we will have to see the other person out of a hospital bed." She joked trying to lighten the mood of the room. It was so nice to see her up and about, you would never know from looking at her that she was an hour away from becoming a zombie.

"How do you feel?" I asked the older woman, curious to speak to her about her experience of having the cure.

"I'm great thanks to you and your young man of course." She said smiling at me. I just rolled my eyes.

"How is mass production going?" I asked straight into business as usual

"We have processes working twenty-four hours a day, our current stock pile stands at just over ten thousand. In about a week we will have over a hundred thousand vials of cure ready to be distributed." She informed me proudly.

It was a brilliant start but with the state of the country we had a hell of a lot of work to do.

* * *

Two days later I was given the all clear by Edwin and allowed out of the hospital bed. The relief was evident to all around me who laughed as I nearly leaped out of bed when given the news. I decided to explore what had happened with the group whilst I was out of action. I found Guillermo and his team of Vato's going over maps and pictures in the rec room. We had managed to get a helicopter and a small group and gone out with a high spec camera taking pictures of the surrounding areas looking for groups and also looking at areas where the dead had congregated. I was right about Guillermo being a great asset to the group, he had already planned out routes and possible locations to set up a community that could support the survivors we had already gathered.

Yesterday we had received word from some of Guillermo's scouting group that a few cars were heading into the city probably having seen the helicopter as it flew over them. We expected the arrival of another survivor group within the next day and we were all hoping that the encounter would be a pleasant one. Guillermo was being overly cautious telling us tales of other groups he had come across who were not friendly.

"How is it going G?" I asked him after he seemed to have finished his briefing

"Chica! So glad you're up and about." He exclaimed before wrapping me in a hug. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Daryl tense up at seeing Guillermo hugging me. Jealousy was not a pretty thing on my sexy redneck.

"Thanks G. Anything new to report?" I asked disengaging myself from the Latino.

"We're gathering a group to go meet the newcomers into the city. Making sure everyone is in CDC outfits to look official." Rick had suggested the outfits as a way of making sure that anyone we encounter wouldn't just open fire first. Doctor Jenner had also developed a way of saturating the outfits in camouflage spray with the affect lasting over twenty-four hours. New developments were happening every day and after my initial contribution of the actual cure I was feeling a bit out of the loop and wanted to develop some more advances myself.

"Keep up the good work." I told Guillermo before heading off to check in with some other sections of the camp. Lori was with a group sorting out clothes she smiled at me and continued her work, Carol and a few of the other Atlanta survivors were with her along with one of the female residents from the care home.

Andrea and Amy were working on establishing rules for our little community and setting up a council, with so many people now in our group it was important to be organised. The girls were currently arguing over ration sizes. Amy was studying to be a nutritionist before the fall of civilisation so was arguing with her sister on what everyone would need. I smiled just thinking about how close Andrea and came to losing her sister and felt a lot of pride that she was here because of me.

I made my way over to the kitchen area to make myself some coffee when I felt strong arms wrap around my waist.

"Missed ya" Daryl mumbled in my ear. We hadn't had any time alone lately and after consummating our relationship over a week ago now I could feel Daryl's eagerness against my back to continue that. I smiled and kissed my boyfriend.

"Later. Where's Mia?" I asked. The small girl now having a permanent attachment to me and Daryl. Everyone in the group had accepted that situation, Valentina herself having come and spoken to me about it pleased that Mia now had two parents again whilst her and her father had their hands full with her two younger cousins.

"Lil monster is down for her nap. She'll be up and about terrorising the locals in about an hour." Daryl replied with a smile. I kissed my boyfriend quickly and grabbed my coffee before going in search of my brother.

I found Rick with Shane sorting through plans much the same why Guillermo was, I soon realised these were the same plans that Guillermo had in front of him ten minutes ago and realised I must have just missed the exchange.

"Everything ok?" I asked my brother

"Guillermo has found a large farm land located just outside of the city. From the pictures it looks like there is a small family living there, there is a high school nearby that is covered with walkers and he's worried that it won't' be long before that group moves on and ends up on this farm. A farm would be a good place to establish some form of settlement we could grow our own food, but fortifying it will take a lot of work. One of the residents Mr Thomas was a former construction worker, he had one of his more lucid days and drew up some plans for a wall that could be built up quickly around this farm. After we've met with this new group of survivors we're going to try and establish communication with the farm. Shane thinks the new radios that were brought in should have enough range if we drop one there." Rick informed me. He seemed excited about how things were going. We weren't just surviving anymore we were on the way to living.

"What about that?" I pointed on the map to what looked like a prison.

"That's the other location we are thinking about purely for the size. But if you look at this picture." He showed me another picture of a town that had a gate erected and what looked like people guarding it. I thought that would be a good thing more survivors. Rick noticed my optimistic expression. "The helicopter was shot at whilst near there. I don't think that group is very friendly"

"I don't think any group is going to be friendly until they know the truth. Everyone is scared. Maybe I should get some of those flyers I designed printed up so that they can be dropped over both areas the next time the chopper goes back out?" I suggested, receiving a nod from my brother.

* * *

"Alpha team. Report. Over" My brother spoke over the radio

"Survivors have arrived at our location. Leader is exiting the vehicle. Over." We all stood my on tender hooks hoping that this encounter went well. From the earlier scouts we knew that the group that were on their way consisted of three vehicles. It felt like a lifetime before Miguel's voice came back on the radio.

"Nest. someone wants to talk to you. Over"

"Hello Rick." My brother and I smiled, I recognised that voice. It was Morgan.

* * *

I've changed Morgan's story. Hope you like it. Please review.

Next chapter planning on introducing the Greene family along with what I hope will be a pleasant surprise.

Let me know any suggestions you have.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer – I own nothing but my OC Allison

Enjoy and review

AN: Sorry it's taken so long to put this out I've had it sitting on my laptop for weeks but as usual life got in the way a bit. Only going to do a couple more chapters before the end of this and I may work on a sequel if I have enough inspiration. Ideas and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

* * *

Allison POV

Morgan's group was quite large, thankfully it included his son Dwight who like I had suspected when I first met him became fast friends with Carl. Morgan had decided pretty quickly to leave King County putting that decision down to meeting me and the hope that one day all this craziness would be over. I had no doubt in my mind that if he had stayed much longer his reluctance to end his wife's undead existence would cost the lives of both his son and himself. In Morgan's convoy was a military man named Abraham Ford. Abraham was currently standing apart from his group after the truth about one of them was revealed.

A weird guy with a very retro haircut named Eugene had convinced poor Abraham that he was the only one that could cure this virus and that he was in touch with established government in Washington D.C. Abraham needing that hope had risked everything to keep the cowardly Eugene alive, losing at least ten people from their group along the way. The only truth that Eugene had told was that he was in possession of a satellite phone. This was Eugene's only redeeming quality, the satellite phone opened a lot of possibilities for us.

Morgan's group in total had sixteen members ranging in ages. Lori was given the task to continue with her census making sure that people were given the opportunity to do jobs for the community that matched their skill set. Things were a little bit strained between Lori and I. I hadn't had the opportunity to talk to her properly about the Shane situation and the past few days Lori had been acting strange. We had gotten into an argument yesterday due to the roles some of the women were assigned. A new member to the group, Laura, had a background in engineering and mathematics yet was assigned to the laundry crew. I nearly slapped Lori after that, I know Lori was your stereotypical housewife but she didn't have to drag women's rights back to the Stone Age due to the end of the world.

Today we were scheduled to make contact with a group at the farm we had found using the helicopter. A package had been dropped. The package had been prepared by Liam who used to work for FEMA designing the deployment system for airdrops in hard to reach locations. Having someone with his knowledge and skills showed we had lots of opportunities to rebuild this world. Inside the package I had written a letter detailing who we were and everything we knew so far. We included a satellite phone and the number for the phone Eugene had provided and a time in which to make that call. I had also insisted that both vials of cure and repellent were included in order to keep their small group safe. The farm was our first attempt at making contact with a group this way. I felt like I was on an episode of _Star Trek Voyager_ making first contact with an alien species. Our leadership council which consisted of Rick, Guillermo, Candace and now Morgan had decided I was the best one to have the initial conversation. With so many people living in the CDC the leaders were decided to be a member of group that came into the CDC, each leader had a second. Slowly but surely we were rebuilding. I was waiting by the phone when the time came for the call. The group on the farm must have been eager to talk as the time had just hit the minute when the phone rang.

"Hello. Who am I speaking to?" I spoke into the phone suddenly nervous

"Hello. This is Hershel Greene. Is this Allison?" Asked an older sounding man

"Yes that is correct. I am very pleased to hear your voice. Can you give us details of your situation?" I asked. This was one of the earlier questions my brother and I had discussed. He was an expert on interviewing people as part of his job and I had experience when dealing with getting information from patients. We had to be careful and not come across as a threat to this group.

"There are eight of us here. My wife and step son were bitten yesterday trying to put our neighbours into isolation but thank the lord your concoction worked and now they are on the road to recovery. We have approximately ten people in isolation how long until you can develop a cure for them?" Asked Hershel. The way he spoke I could tell he was both a religious man and someone with medical training. I was a little perplexed that he thought the people that had died could be saved.

"I'm sorry Mr Greene, if the virus progresses past death there is no cure." I spoke calmly as not to sound threatening to the farmer.

"I don't believe it. When aids came along, everyone panicked. One boy in town came down with it and some parents pulled their children from school so they didn't have to sit in the same room."

"Mr Greene I mean no disrespect. We are at the CDC we have analysed and looked at all the data. Those that the virus reanimates are no longer the people they once were. As soon as the person's heart stops there is no reversing the effects of this disease." I hoped that Hershel could accept this, the way he spoke about the zombies and isolation I knew he probably kept a group somewhere. Looking again at aerial shots of his farm I could see several barns. "Mr Greene I will be frank with you. We have a very large group of people here, however the CDC needs to run on generators in order to maintain quarantine guidelines, if the power runs out the CDC will implode so that none of the contagions housed here are released, due to our large group size the rate of consumption of these resources is too high. We would like to discuss the possibility of having your farm as an outpost of sorts, we will fortify it and make it secure from the infected and eventually make a more permanent base nearby with your farm still acting as a resource in order to grow and provide sustenance for the community we hope to establish. We are about to make contact with another group that is about five miles from your location and we hope to secure and remove threats from the area."

"I think we can come to some sort of arrangement." He paused, seeming to be weighing his words before he proceeded. "I want to see your data before I give up on my neighbours. God would not have given me the opportunity to house these people if he didn't have a plan." Hershel was obviously a very religious man but the way he spoke I could already judge he would be a welcome addition to our growing council.

"We have a truck ready to go with the fencing that is required to secure the farm. I will send the helicopter when we receive word that the fence is secure to bring you to the CDC." I instructed. In truth the truck had set off this morning and was waiting an hour from the farm waiting for word on the positive outcome of this conversation. Everyone in the group knew the importance of having this farm as an outpost. It was two hours from the CDC, isolated with at least forty cattle spotted when flying overhead. There were several outbuildings that could be converted easily into additional housing and the nearby school although crawling with walkers would be full of supplies.

"That is acceptable. I hope to hear from you soon" Hershel answered effectively ending our conversation.

"Thank you Mr Greene. I hope we can benefit each other. I will call you again tomorrow to check in." I ended the call and looked at my brother who had been standing by listening as much as possible.

"You did well" He informed me.

"His religious views will rile a few people." I informed Rick. "When this all started religious fanatics came out of the woodwork all sprouting scripture and that this was God's will. A few others put so much faith in this that they didn't react fast enough when people were bitten and turned, people even tried exorcism" I told Rick, whose eyes got wider portraying his shock.

"You still did well. You should go spend some time with Daryl, I know you've been avoiding him the last few days." My older brother scolded me. The truth was I had been avoiding Daryl the last couple of days mainly due to suspecting I'm pregnant and how he would react to that. We had so much going on at the moment, trying to establish outposts making plans to keep the CDC running and meeting up with other survivors that it was easy to go the last couple of days without seeing each other. Daryl had been out scouting all today with a small group, seeing if there were any other groups in the city. He was either due back or to check in the next two hours.

"He's with the city group. I don't think they're back yet. Thanks for still being my perceptive big brother." I joked with Rick and elbowed him making him chuckle. It was nice to have rare moments were we could just be brother and sister again. "Have you spoken much to Lori the last few days?" I asked Rick trying to return the favour.

"We're in a good place now. I think it's been on the cards for a long time before the world ended. Just the morning I was shot I was telling Shane." He paused realising what he just said. I know that he would probably be ok with Lori moving on, when Rick was in the coma she told me they were considering separating; it was the fact that the person she moved on to was Rick's best friend, his confidant the person who he talked to about her. It was like Shane had used everything he knew about their relationship and used it to win Lori. It would take a long time before they were even going to associate properly, it would be a consideration when we decided where the main site would be. It was a real life soap opera if I was honest.

"Any other developments you want to tell me about?" I winked at my brother. Since the larger group had started realising that Rick was a free agent he seemed to have women after him left and right. There was Andrea who had been sniffing around him since she met him, there was also Mary, June and Laura all of whom had joined us in the last two weeks. Every time Rick went past one of them their eyes would trail him like he was the last drink of water on the hottest day in summer. Rick blushed at the question.

"I'm keeping my options open." He responded slyly. I just rolled my eyes and said my goodbyes.

* * *

2 weeks later

So much had happened in the last two weeks I found so little time for Daryl it was frustrating, we barely said three words to each other, a lot of the time we would return to our room for the night and one or the other would already be asleep, the next morning one of us always got up before the other to do the work that was required around the place.

Hershel arrived yesterday and after having a very long scientific and theological discussion with myself, Candace and Edwin we convinced him of the truth of the situation. His wife Annette and step son Shaun had come with him both very weak after having the vaccine. They required some further medical treatment to deal with infections from their wounds however, were making a good recovery.

Daryl's city group had found three more groups of survivors the main of which was in a hospital which was being run by police officers. After a lot of negotiating and exchanges of resources we came to an arrangement with the group. Some of our group decided to live at the hospital to help save power at the CDC whilst further infrastructure was being set up. The last of these had moved out two days ago, this gave the CDC an additional 2 years' worth of power and we could now run the CDC as a base with its skeleton group. The hospital group had a small fight amongst themselves to oust their oppressive leaders who were holding people against their will, luckily only a few good people were lost in that struggle. It reminded us that not all people would maintain their humanity at the end of the world. A few of Guillermo's men had fortified the hospital using their welding and mechanical knowledge.

Hershel's farm was secure and the walkers taken care of in the five mile radius surrounding the farm, this included the high school which had a lot of medical supplies. The latest project being undertaken was securing a mall off the highway between the CDC and the farm and a prison which was also between the two locations. Glenn had met Hershel's daughter Maggie when he had gone to the farm to help with the fences and bringing supplies in for the farm so Glenn had a new home.

We had finally made initial contact with a group at a town called Woodbury. Thankfully this communication came just in time for our cure to be given to the leader's daughter, Penny; I don't think we would have been able to negotiate with the charismatic leader if she had died. Angela had decided to go to Woodbury as a negotiator and then decided to stay after falling for the 'Governor' and relished the opportunity to be a family with him and Penny. The Governor's walls were secure and he had a small amount of muscle which he used to protect the weaker people in his community. I had only met him once but he gave me the creeps, it was decided amongst us that the only people who knew the truth of the cure were our initial group. It wasn't safe for everyone to know. I made sure Angela knew that until we trusted the Governor that he wasn't to know it came from me.

I had taken a test last night which confirmed I am pregnant. I knew now we were building a new society that it would be relatively safe to have a child, however, I was still scared. At least with staying at the CDC surrounded by doctors I would be safe. I just had to figure out a way to tell Daryl and my brother. Lori was also pregnant. This came as a shock to Lori and was even more dangerous, Lori had a lot of complications having Carl so for her to have another would be very high risk. Lori stayed at the CDC with Shane for this reason. If she wasn't pregnant they had come to the arrangement of Lori, Carl and Shane moving to the farm with Rick visiting once a weak to pick up supplies and spend time with Carl. It was a bit anti-climactic to finally come up with an arrangement only for it to be pointless. Rick didn't want to leave the CDC due to me and with Lori staying there now he would get to spend all the time he wanted with Carl. He would need to work on his relationship with Shane.

More and more groups were arriving into the city responding to flyers that we had air dropped about the cure in the CDC. Lori had continued her job completing a census of survivors. We had even managed to reunite families that had been separated. Each newcomer was assigned a new home based on their experience, the majority of people were currently sent to the hospital to live. People who had farming experience went to live at the farm to support Hershel and his family. We had also started transporting survivors to Woodbury to be part of that community. Rick had proposed to the council that Daryl and Merle go to Woodbury as hunters their skills would be best suited there. He did this without even talking to me and Daryl about it. When Daryl told me he would be gone for a week. I had a screaming fit and ran out of the room with him on my heels.

"RICK!" I screamed around the CDC searching for my brother. The few remaining members of our group looked on in worry. Rick was in the big room talking to Edwin.

"You can't send Daryl away" I yelled at my brother

"Allie Cat calm down. He's not going to be far away, Daryl needs to be where he is most needed." He tried to calm me down

"If you think for one minute I'm staying here without him you've got another thing coming" I still yelled at Rick.

"Allison Grimes! You know you're needed here Edwin said that we can't make any more cure unless you're here. Daryl will come back once a week to give blood to help too. I don't see the problem here."

"I'M PREGNANT YOU IDIOT!" I screamed at him.

"What?!" Daryl yelled behind me.

* * *

 **AN: Hoping to have another chapter for you in a couple of weeks. Thanks for being patient with me. Thank you for all the reviews, favourites and follows so far. Let me know if you want to see anything happen**


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